Crashing the Gates

I just started reading the new book out, "Crashing the Gates: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of the People-Powered Politics" by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Jerome Armstrong. It is an incredible book. The words are so powerful and filled with so much truth that they leap off the page and pierce the heart. These guys speak truth in a powerful way. I'm sure that Karl Rove and the right wing think tanks have copies and are rapidly analyzing it and trying to do damage control. Buy two copies, one for your self and one for a friend! Kudos to the Daily Kos writers, the new Paul Revere of the 21st Century.

Mr. Scanlon's job and Jack Abramoff

Hmmm... When Mr. Scanlon worked for Abramoff, he made 3+ million dollars a year as a summer life guard. Gee, I want that job!

Billions -- I WONDER IF THIS IS TRUE...

I received this e-mail today. I have now way to know whether or not it is true. But an interesting thouhgt.

Subject: Big Bucks
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

a.. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

b.. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

c.. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. d.. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

e.. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

Immigration Reform - the right thing to do

Here is the immigration policy I would like to see our country consider:

1. All illegal immigrants receive a guest worker card that is good for three years.

2. During that time, they have to learn English and pass a test that show they know basic facts about our country

3. They have to report where they are working and how much they are being paid at all time and if they are not working, then they have to leave the country

4. If they are working, there has to be a record of who they are working for and how much money they are being paid.

5. Any employer that is not paying at least minimum wage is punished, fined or prosecuted for violations and regularly published in the news.

6. We secure our borders so that no new illegal immigrants can come into the country or at least the amount of immigrants that are coming in illegally is drastically reduced.

7. Illegal immigrants that have children born in the country are not automatic citizens without proper documentation.

8. We have to come up with a foreign policy that assists Latin Americans to create jobs in their own countries. ( NAFTA was supposed to do that, so change NAFTA so that it distributes the wealth more equitably among the citizens and not just the corrupt leaders at the top of the economic ladder. )

This is the reform that I would like to see the Congress and the Senate debating.

Condoleezza Rice on Meet the Press

Condoleezza Rice, "We all thought that Sadam had weapons of mass destruction."

What she and others fail to say is, "We all thought we had weapons of mass destruction BECAUSE WE SOLD THEM TO HIM, THAT'S HOW WE KNEW HE HAD THEM."

Misquoting Jesus

I like where John Perkins, in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man asks the question, “if Jesus were to appear on Earth today, what would he appear as?” Would he be a bible scholar, a politician or an exploited third world worker? That is an interesting question, don’t you think? These religious fanatics hide in religion. They can’t say what they think, only what they have read and what someone else has told them they should think. That is what I learned when I was involved in the church many years ago. The churches I spent time in didn’t want you to think for yourself, just comply. We call, “spoon-fed Christians.”

I think that people use religion as a refuge, a place to hide from the world.

The Jesus in the bible was very political. He stood up to the forces of his day and time which was the religious institutions, who ruled everything. He stood against the money changers in the temple and said this is supposed to be a house of worship.

What do you think Jesus would do if he were alive today?

What I hate about the church right now is that it is being used to promote a political agenda that is quite immoral. These naïve, weak minded people are being used as political pawns, just as they have been used over and over and over again throughout history.

My mouth hangs open when I talk to seemingly intelligent people whose understanding of religion and the world is so backwards that it makes me want to cry. John Perkins said in his book, “Most American’s have a third grade understanding of the world.” We are so naïve.

George Bush bemoans Web 2.0

In one of George Bush's recent press conferences I heard him bemoaning the fact that people are now getting their news from "other sources" than the main stream media. ( chuckle ) I'm sure that he is not happy about it either. One of the things that the right wing movment has done so well was to find a way to manipulate the media and use it as a weapon against the perceived, "liberal bias" in the news. They worked the refs to perfection.

There are several good books written recently that examine tactics used by the right wing movement and show how they have been successful in creating buzz, controlling the message, and shaping public opinion with their tactics. This has helped them win elections. Now, however, people are not relying on the main stream media for their main source of information. People are getting their news from the Internet, blogs, wiki, podcasts, listserves, forums, web rings, RSS news feeds etc, which has opened the door for more diversity in the news.

As Bush's approval ratings continue to plummet, I'm sure the Web 2.0 technologies have been like sand in their eye. I'm sure that they are not happy about the fact that people are getting their news from lots of different sources. Thankfully we can though.

Democrats -- Detoxing Corporate America

Here is a disturbing report: New studies are showing that toxic chemicals are accumulating in human fat tissue, and are found in mothers' breast milk, blood, and urine at rates never before seen before.

The good news is that people are starting to band together to change the rules of the game. I think the right wing conservatives had done a good job of painting Democrats as being the party of "hand outs" and promote the idea that the Republicans are the party of the "hand up."

Which wwould you vote for? A hand out or a hand up?

Democrats need to start talking out about reform. I will go on record to say that I am not "anti-corporation." I want want corporations to be better citizens. They are the bullies on the playground and their behavior, while it may be good for their shareholders is not good for everyone on the playground.

We need to Detox our environment and our political process.

The Greenlist

The Greenlist: An attempt to inform consumers about the products they buy.

Breaking news: BP Admits Largest Oil Spill on Northern Slope near ANWAR

BREAKING NEWS: Largest Oil Spill Ever on Alaska’s North Slope After days of lowball estimates (ten times lower!), BP and cleanup officials finally announced today that 201,000 to 267,000 gallons of crude oil were likely spilled this week in Prudhoe Bay, an area just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The spill -- the largest in the history of Alaska’s North Slope -- underscores the fact that oil drilling is a dirty business and has no business in a world-class wildlife refuge. Such a large spill should make it even harder for the drilling lobby to sell their unwanted plan to drill the Arctic Refuge.

A Crunchy Con?

Here is an interesting review of a book by an author who says that the Crunchy Cons ( the true conservatives) and the liberals share common values. The book is called:

Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Rig

With Bush you just never know

So is this a photo-op or is this a sign that the Bush folks are really starting to get that we need to wean ourselves off of oil?

According to a recent article in the Guardian, President Bush announced that the torch on the Statue of Liberty is to be lit exclusively by wind power.

Pepco Energy Services has won the three-year contract to provide power primarily from wind farms in Pennsylvania and New York state.

"An even more prominent commitment to alternative energy had been promised in an early design for Daniel Libeskind's rebuilding of Ground Zero, which was to have included 30 windmills at the top of the centrepiece Freedom Tower."

Of course, the environmentalist are leary and want to know if it is just the same old oil guy doing a photo op as in the past.

Wow, this is powerful stuff

Check it out.... We will not be silenced....

Dear Google we need your help!

This statement is on the Google.org website:

"We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems."Sergey Brin & Larry Page

In the book “Collapse” by Jared Diamond, there is a wonderful section about the power of the consumer to shape the behavior of corporations. (pages 473 -483) Jared Diamond uses Home Depot as an example. Customers were made aware of two types of lumber being sold at a store in Seattle; one type of lumber being sold had the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification and one did not. They did an experiment to see if consumers would pay a few dollars more if they were told how the lumber was being produced. What they found was that when consumers were given the power to decide how to spend their dollars based on environmental practices, many consumers elected to purchase the product that was eco-friendly.

Someone needs to create a database of corporations that are ranked by their environmental impact. There are many different groups out there that are trying to do this but the products and companies they rate are often out of the mainstream and luxury items. What is needed is something more basic that every consumer can understand and utilize. For example: When a consumer goes to Wal-Mart, or Target or the grocery store, how do they decide which paper products to purchase?

Here are a list of corporations that sell paper products at Wal-Mart:

Georgia Pacific-Products they produce- Vanity Fair, Bounty, Brawny, Scott, Family Napkins, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft ‘n Gentle, Angel Soft, Dixie

Other Corporations that sell products at Wal-Mart--
Kimberly Clark

Procter and Gamble

Scott Paper

Pactiv Corp.

What is missing in the market place is a consumer is a guide; an environmental consumer guide for the different products that we buy every day. Whether it’s a paper product or a laundry detergent, or dog food, consumers need some way to educate themselves so that those who care about how products are produced and the damage a company leaves behind in the name of profits can use their purchasing power to reward the companies that are good stewards of the environment and who are good corporate citizens rather than buy a product simply on the price.

I don’t have the manpower, money or influence to do this on the scale that is needed to have the impact that is possible should such information become available. Information presented in an easy to understand way could make a huge inpact the market place and become a way to help solve some of the biggest environmental problems we face globally. Google.org, I believe is the best hope for something like this to become a reality. If you look at the paper companies that I have mentioned, can you tell me on a scale from 1 to 5, which company’s product you would buy based on their environmental record? Which of the companies has the most sustainable practices? Google's foundation could partner with the different environmental groups to come up with a way to rate and rank multinational corporations and the products they produce and that the information could be distributed in the market in many different formats.

If you like for Google to consider this his idea, please let Larry and Sergey know.

Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks

Sandra Day O'Connor is speaking out about righ wing attempts to control the 3 branches of government:

Published on Monday, March 13, 2006 by the Guardian / UK

Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary
by Julian Borger

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary.
Sandra Day O'Connor

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

Mr DeLay later called for the impeachment of judges involved in the Schiavo case, and called for more scrutiny of "an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president".

Such threats, Ms O'Connor said, "pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedom", and she told the lawyers in her audience: "I want you to tune your ears to these attacks ... You have an obligation to speak up.

"Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence - people do," the retired supreme court justice said.

She noted death threats against judges were on the rise and added that the situation was not helped by a senior senator's suggestion that there might be a connection between the violence against judges and the decisions they make.

The senator she was referring to was John Cornyn, a Bush loyalist from Texas, who made his remarks last April, soon after a judge was shot dead in an Atlanta courtroom and the family of a federal judge was murdered in Illinois.

Senator Cornyn said: "I don't know if there is a cause and effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country ... And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence."

Although appointed by a Republican, Ms O'Connor voted with the supreme court's liberals on some divisive issues, including abortion, making her a frequent target for criticism from the right. After announcing that she intended to retire last year at the age of 75, she was replaced in February this year by Samuel Alito, who is generally regarded as being more consistently conservative.

In her speech, Ms O'Connor said that if the courts did not occasionally make politicians mad they would not be doing their jobs, and their effectiveness "is premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts".

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Molly Ivins-- Please read "Take It Back"

Molly Ivins article DC Dems is a good example of the frustration that most Democrats feel about our leadership right now. I would like to ask her though to read "Take It Back", Paul Begaula and James Carville's new book. They have some really practical examples of campaign finance reform that make sense. It would be nice if the voices of the Democratic Party who are in the media could speak with some unity. I'll post her article in the comment section for anyone who wants to read it.

The US, Dubai, Iraq, Osama, and Oil--A Lesson for Americans

By now, anyone who is paying any attention to the news has heard about the Dubai Port deal that would have allowed an Arab country, UAE, to manage our ports. I like most Americans have a problem with this idea post 9-11. Not because I hate Arabs, but because it appears that some Arabs have an intense disliking for Americans. Our response to the idea of letting this foreign country to come into our homeland and control something that is vital to the interests of this country made me stop and reflect on how the Arabs must feel about us being in their countries running their businesses. If I’m not mistaken, I think that this is one of Osama’s and Al Qaeda’s gripe with our country.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/21/port.security/

They want us out of their country as much as we wanted them out of our ports. We run their oil business, we invade their land, and we push our foreign policies on them. How would we feel if they did the same to us?

The backlash to this proposed business transactions had politicians bending over backwards to try to calm down their constituencies. Perhaps we should stop and consider that the Iraq people do not want us in their country either.

Unfortunately we need their oil so we can’t leave. We need a pro-democracy, pro-American government that will allow us to continue purchasing the cheap oil we need to make our economy grow. Therein lies the rub. Our county would come to a grinding halt if the oil supply was threatened. I hear that we have a one year supply for emergencies and there are other countries that can sell oil. But this would be a major speed-bump in the world economy and the march toward globalization.

It seems the only sensible thing to do is to begin a major effort to wean ourselves off of foreign oil. The corner-stone of the Bush energy plan has been to drill for oil in the Artic Wild Life Refuge. This would buy them time but it will not solve the problem. The Democrats can’t fully embrace the alternative energy plan because the oil companies’ holdings represent a huge chunk of economy, and people’s livelihood and savings are connected to their success. Huge amounts capital invested in the oil infrastructure contributes to maintaining the status quo.

One of the things we need in this country is an honest debate about our reasons for being in the Middle East. Osama and the Arab’s who don’t want us in their country will continue to resist, just as the Afghan Mujahideen did to the Russians. The Mujahideen were eventually successful in driving out the Russians and the Taliban grew and thrived. This puts us right back to 9/11. Our interest in Afghanistan was an oil pipeline. The Taliban was friendly to Osama who was trying to drive the infidels out of the Middle East which inspired the attack of 9/11.

This war is about natural resources, capitalism and who controls what. We can not walk away from Iraq unless we are can be certain that we will not lose our access to the oil in the region. We want a pro-American government that will be pro-capital. Oil is the life-blood of this country. Without it our economy is doomed.

So is there a win-win situation for everyone? Let’s hope so. In the mean time, beware of any politician who says that the answer to our energy needs is to drill for oil in the Artic Wild Life Refuge.

What is wrong with American Schools?

I'll let this article speak for itself.

The Southern Standard Newspaper McMinnville, TN 3/12/06

Student of the Week Mykyta Shokur School: Centertown Elementary Grade: Seventh Age: 12. Mykyta was born in Russia and moved here about five months ago. Even though Mykyta is from Russia, he is still a normal kid.“My favorite subject is PE,” said Mykyta. “I like sports. I hope to join basketball next year. I also like soccer.”He says there are differences between schools in Russia and America.“There is no study hall in Russia like there is here,” said Mykyta. “I went from 12 o’clock until 6 p.m.” Mykyta likes American schools.“I think it is easier here,” said Mykyta. “We had about 28 different subjects that we had to do every week. We had three kinds of history and four different languages. We studied English, Ukrainian, Russian and German.”Thanks to the language curriculum in Russia requiring Mykyta to take English starting in third grade, he hasn’t had a hard time with language in America.

Republicans are Pro-Pesticide Testing on Humans

I received the League of Conservation Voter's National Environmental Scorecard for 2005 in the mail this week. Basically, the votes split right down party lines. Anything pro-environment is supported by the Democrats and anything anti-environment is voted for by the Republicans. One in particular that I find extremely offensive was the issue of Human Pesticide Testing. The Chemical companies have tried to persuade the EPA (cash donations to the Republicans) to reverse the moratorium on using humans to test pesticides! Barbra Boxer, fighting against a Republican majority in the Senate, pushed to keep a one year moratorium in place but the best she could do was get a six month moratorium. The House (Republican controlled) narrowed the ban even further and said, the chemical companies can't test on pregnant women or children. The rest of the population is fair game! And these people are say they respect life and have morals?

For more informations see:

Burns Supporting Human Pesticide Testing?

The Study called Cheers-- this was stopped

Biased Results that are pro chemical companies expected

Proposed study--petition against it

The White House --helps chemical companies

Students paid to drink poison

Earth Justice

Bloggers beware--Al Qaeda embraces Myspace.com

When I read stuff like this, it makes me stop and give pause to the NSA spying debate that we are having in this country. How do we stop this kind of thing from happening and still protect people's privacy? This is not good!

ABC News reports that beginning in “early 2002, al Qaeda quickly switched to hiding its online operations within more legitimate bulletin boards and Internet sites offering free upload services or connecting through such popular social network sites as Orkut and MySpace.”

There was also an article in the Newsweek about how gangs are starting to also use the web to promote their life-style and kids globally are responding and being recruited to start up chapters of a gang in another country.

I'll ask the question again: United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet.

Which policy do you think would help fight the spread of terrorism in the world?

Seminole County residents get boil-water alert

According to the Orlando Sentinel, residents in Seminole County have to boil water for 72 hours but no details as to why. The customers of the company, Sanlando Utilities were issued this alert.

What America spends on the Iraq war

Here is an interesting quote from the book our book club is reading: "Economic Hit man" by John Perkins.

"The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet."

If this is true, which policy do you think would help eliminate terrorism?

media matters--media personalities--video clips

Check out your favorite media personalities on Media Matters.

Democratic Media Reform

Here are the who's who list of media watch bloggers and websites.

Amen, Amen and "ah a a a m e n"

Believe it or not, I heard Republican Congressman JD Hayworth say something today I whole heartidly agree with:

The way to judge a politician-- don't measure them by what they say, measure them by what they do!!

Too often the American public listens to what our political leaders say and fail to watch and see if their actions match their words. Everyone is too busy I guess, but I applaud JD Hayworth for saying that the true test is the actions not the spin.

Liberals for Guns -- Changing the Political Equation

I have to admit, I have gotten a few odd looks when I say that one of our campaign slogans should be "LIBERALS FOR GUNS!" I'm glad that Paul Begula and James Carville agree with me in their recent book, "Take it Back."

I'm dead serious too when I say that we should have bumper stickers on our cars that say "Liberals for Guns." I believe that everyone has the right to own a gun as long as they follow the laws that are currently in place in this country. I do not ever wish to have to use a gun to defend myself, but if I had to, I would want to be able to do this.

I think what made me change my mind on this issue was reading Samantha Power's book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide." I had a good friend who insisted that I read this book. I can remember thinking, what a horrible topic, I don't want to read this book! But she and I were starting a book club and we wanted to be open to read books that both of us recommended. So I read it.

I can remember that after the first several pages I was hooked. I couldn't put the book down. It was one of those things that people read changes their world view forever.

Over and over again in the book, you see how genocide happened because one side was naive in the beginning, they believed in the "goodness of mankind" and they are unarmed. I hope to write more about this book later. There are cases after cases that demonstrate this: Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Germany.

God forbid that we should ever have another war in this country. I hope and pray that we never do. But if there ever was an situation where we had to defend ourselves from extreme right wing political views, it's a no brainier which side would win. Who has the guns? Who controls the military? The Liberals? Think again!

I hear that no one would ever dream of invading Switzerland because almost everyone has a gun in that country.

If you want to change the political equation in this country, start promoting the idea "LIBERALS FOR GUNS!"Then we would see where the NRA really stood on this issue!

The Ruling Elite

I want to go back to this Kate O'Beirne post that I made earlier. I hear the conservatives promote the idea that the liberal elites are out of touch with the majority of Americans and that the people on the political right are the ones that are really in touch with the common man's interest and values. And I'll restate the paraphrase of what Kate O'Beirne said on Hardball last week concerning the current port issue:

Those of us who know and understand global economic issues are not concerned or alarmed about this business transaction. Only uninformed citizens who do not know or understand global economic issues are concerned. But really everyone should leave decisions as to what is best for this country up to the ruling elite....

Really, ask yourself, who are the ruling elite in this country? Aren't they the people that Bush calls "his base" and whom he gives the largest tax cuts to? Aren't the ruling elite the invisible players in the multinational corporations around the world who support the Neoconservatives right-wing economic agendas and seek to strengthen corporatations at the expense of the human rights or workers rights? Who has the money, who has the power? Liberals? Think again! Wake up before it's too late!

Interesting Sermon by a Unitarian Minister in Austin, Texas

Fascism in America is the name of this sermon. Before you say, "more partisan politics"-click/goodbye , it's really worth reading. The only thing I disagree with is the closing statement, that says religion is the only real answer.

Another interesting thing about this article is that it is posted on David Crosby's webiste. That would be the David Crosby of the 60/70's band, Crosby, Steel, Nash and Young. If I recall correctly, Neil Young left the band because he wanted to keep his music centered in social issues. The other band members wanted to pursue chart hits. Now David Crosby is posting this article on his website. ( An interesting turn of events.) I guess my generation "The Boomers" were asleep at the swithch. We were supposed to be so "enlightened" but look what has happened to this country right under out noses. Click on the link that says politics and then read the sermon titled: Fascism in America

Also, a copy and paste version of the article is in the comment section in case you can't find the link:

Anti-Bush yard sign promts suit and stops homeowner's freedome of speech

It appears that our freedom of speech has limits when it comes to Homeowners' Associations. According to the Associated Press, a homeowner who decided to put an anti-Bush Holiday Greeting sign in his yard for Christmas, was not only sued by his Hamilton Mill Homeowner’s Association, but he was also vandalized by the people in his community. The sign said:

Happy Holidays
Bush Like: Soldiers Died
2,500 Warriors Dead
37,000 Wounded and Maimed
50,000 Iraqi Civilians Dead

Impeach the Bush Chaney Crime Family
If the war is so noble, why aren't the Bush Twins There???

Needless to say, a few neighbors who were pro-Bush supporters were up in arms over this. The homeowner's association sued. Maybe the American Civil Liberties Union or some other group should help raise money for this family's legal defense. This could be a bad thing if the courts decide that we can't express our freedom of speech on our own property.

There are two sides to this argument of course, but one worth debating.

Gladwell vs. Gladwell on Healthcare

Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell has changed sides on the argument about the value of blogs and the need for universal healthcare. It seems he has had a change of heart. Where he once thought both were not needed, he now sees the need and the value of both.

This week-- Kate O'Beirne--people we love to hate

So I took a break from writing this week and tried to catch up on all of my blog reading. I did get a chance to watch "Hardball" one night and happened to see Kate O'Beirne on the show. Let me summarize what she said regarding the public uproar over the UAE, Dubai port take over:

Those of us who know and understand global economic issues are not concerned or alarmed about this business transaction. Only uninformed citizens who do not know or understand global economic issues are concerned. But really everyone should leave decisions as to what is best for this country up to the ruling elite....

(I'm sure she includes herself in that catagory)

Upcoming G8 Summit by Vladimir Putin

In the New York Times today, there is an incredible letter by Vladimir Putin that outline what the goals of the G8 Summit should be about. It is an incredible letter! As I read it, I'm thinking, why can't our President say something as relevant and as important as this? So far I have not been able to find the entire letter, but there's a recap of it on the G8 website. I'm going to keep looking for the whole letter and post it in the comment section. If I can't find it, though, I’ll retype the whole thing. It's too important for people not to hear!

Thank you Vladimir Putin. The Upcmoing G8 Summit in St. Petersburg