Tell the governor you want teens to have the information they need to make healthy, responsible life decisions.  Before September 26, 2007, Governor Napolitano will decide whether to apply for federal money for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.  It is extremely important that the Governor hears loud and clear that Arizona must end its dependence on federal money that censors our teachers, preventing them from providing Arizona teens with vital health care information!

Here are three reasons why:

- Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs prohibit teachers from discussing contraceptives except to tell their failure rates. They also provide medically inaccurate information, promote gender stereotypes, discriminate against gays and lesbians, and are based on messages of fear or shame.

- A rigorous, multi-year, congressionally commissioned study published in April 2007 showed that these programs do not work. Teens who participated in these programs were just as likely to have sex as those who didn’t, and they had sex at the same age and had the same number of sexual partners as teens who did not participate in the federally funded programs.

- Parents across the nation and overwhelmingly want sex education to cover information about contraception. Major medical groups have also advocated for a more comprehensive approach to sex education.

With the second-highest rate of teen pregnancies in the nation, Arizona cannot afford to continue these harmful and ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.  A recent study attributed the decline in teen pregnancy rates overwhelmingly to increased contraceptive use, not abstinence. Arizona should support reproductive health policies that are effective, save taxpayer dollars and protect the public health.  Young people need and deserve complete, accurate, and age-appropriate sex education that discusses BOTH abstinence and the use of contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

We need your help!! Join us in asking the Governor to: Continue reading →

Cross post from Miami Herald. This might be the steps toward President Bush attempting to close Gitmo his way. We need to monitor this closely.

With plans scrapped for a massive war-crimes legal compound that might have cost $125 million, the Pentagon is now building a more modest tent city.

The Pentagon is building a $10 million military tent city on an abandoned air field at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to hold the first war-crimes trials since World War II, a senior military official said Wednesday.

The plan has been dramatically scaled back from an earlier blueprint that envisioned a huge legal compound at the remote Naval base in southeast Cuba — housing for 1,200, dining facilities for 800, a 100-car motor pool and conference center with projected costs of up to $125 million. That plan was abandoned amid controversy about the costs.

The new blueprints feature hurricane-resistant, air-conditioned tents that look like small aircraft hangars to accommodate service members and civilians working on the trials — including media and legal observers. Continue reading →

When you run the first time for President to create movement, and thus successfully propel a group of activists toward building a lasting organization to harness your efforts long after your campaign… one might say you had an intent. But then when you run again on the same issues that successfully mobilized this base but at the end of the day didn’t get you past 2% (at best) then what is the point?

The case in point, one Congressman from Ohio. What is the point of his candidacy this time around? And at what cost? Senator John Edwards is running with a Single Payer plan and an “Out of Iraq” platform. He has more resources and more viability this second time around. In the case of Kucinich, what vastly different strategy is he putting forward from last time? What is he doing different? Even if in a perfect world he doubled his resources and thus doubling his turn out… that would be only 4%. I am not saying resources equal turn out… but it is simply an analogy.

What hurts worse is that this member of Congress is a member we can not lose in Congress. His votes are needed. He continues to vote on the issues consistently with his progressive agenda. We need that voice and those votes in Congress. This last midterm election cycle he had a strong challenger that ran on a strong message that Dennis was “out running for President” as a priority over his Congressional responsibilities. This, unfortunately, gained some major play for the GOP candidate.

Knowing this was a tough race, one would think he would want to focus back on gaining his once strength that he has always had in his district prior to running for President? Nope… it was an ego boost. Time to run for President again! On the same platform. With the same strategy. Somehow thinking the results will be different. At the expense of what?

Well this morning according to the Buckeye State Blog, Kucinich is set to face a major new primary opponent for his Cleveland-based House seat yet again.

Dean DePiero, Mayor of Parma - Ohio’s seventh largest city with 80,000 residents - is tossing his hat into the Primary carnival to take out Democratic Congressman and presidential wannabe Dennis Kucinich. While BSB followed up on rumors of Dean’s interest back in May, nothing ever came of it. Until now. Over the weekend I spoke with two reliable sources. One source confirmed that he had spoken with Dean directly, and Dean claimed to be committed to the race. Another source confirmed that throughout the summer (notably August) DePiero had been busy cultivating donors. Also, I’ve heard multiple whispers that a poll may’ve been commissioned already, but I don’t have further info there.

I have no details on kick off, entrance, official word from Dean or any of that. Calls placed to DePiero’s campaign office on Wednesday have gone unreturned. However, I repeat, one of my sources spoke with DePiero directly, and Dean claimed he was in the race.

DePiero, a former state representative and Ohio House Minority Leader, would offer Kucinich his stiffest challenge yet, forcing the candidate to spend less time on the Presidential trail and more time in his own district.

The question at this point is… will he spend the needed time in-district or have his eyes on the larger prize? The 2% vote for President.

Someone really needs to get a clue. This seat is important. We NEED Kucinich in the House. Other then the “Department of Peace” can anyone tell me what Kucinich’s focus is this time?

NAFTA/CAFTA? Edwards has that covered well.

The war? Again Edwards, but also Obama, even Gravel.

Universal Healthcare? Edwards and Gravel.

I am at a loss.

Many of the SpidelBlog readers know about this whole Cegelis stuff. This is not another post about that. If you want to revisit see previous post. But when that article came out yesterday, I received a lot of calls from volunteers on that campaign with updates of what is going on. A lot I already knew about because I have been trying to stay in touch with many folks back there. However, the level of detail was not there until I received a call from Amy. She told me about Turn DuPage Blue. I knew about this grassroots driven organizing effort for some time, but I didn’t know about how developed it has become.

Because of the Democratic Party organization having various clubs, township organizations, and different groupings of Democratic activists, it has been hard to keep a focused effort long term in Dupage. Much like Maricopa county’s various clubs and groups. I know that a lot of this effort is being done already in the county, however it is driven by the organization and/or various forms of this type of activities driven by LD organizations. This type of organizing in IL06 is being driven by a grassroots committee loosely associated with the Democratic organizations. Take a look at some of these initiatives that Maricopa county Democratic activist can take a note from. Go to http://www.turndupageblue.com and to their blog: http://turndupageblue.blogspot.com/