Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Life goes on. School goes on. It was nice to take a break from it all tonight. I spent the evening hanging out with a good friend at a nice bar downtown. I truly love this friend, but it's been decided that we will remain friends. Life often presents you with bittersweet moments, where you know you will not receive what you really, truly wish for but somehow you know that things will turn out alright. I am just thankful to have him in my life. Life is generally OK. Classes are a bit stressful, but I know I will survive. I spend many of my waking hours studying. I also worry about my friend David who will soon be facing a trial in D.C. Superior Court. He is easily one of the most dedicated activists in D.C.; you'll often find him demonstrating in front of the White House in his Bush devil costume. I also worry about my friend Dawn in Burma. She runs a great blog on Xanga. I pray for peace and freedom in the world.

Scheduled speakers to include Rev. Yearwood, president of the HipHop Caucus and Gael Murphy, co-founder of Code Pink. Others have been invited. For more information: Eve Tetaz, 202-332-0599 Dear Friends, On Friday, November 2, I appear in DC Superior Court for a status hearing on 4 charges ranging from failure to obey a legal order to incommoding and unlawful assembly. A press conference will be held on the steps of the court house attended by several leaders and members of the peace community for the purpose of speaking truth to power and drawing attention to the violation of the right of the individual to peacefully and non-violently petition the government for a redress of grievances. On October 15th the Prosecution presented me with a plea bargain that called for my pleading guilty to one of the charges and facing jail time. I will not plead guilty, but am willing to plead nolo contendere which means that I will only admit to peacefully being present at the scene

This is truly frightening, and it pretty much sums up our current political environment. Ralph sounds as great as ever!

(First Appeared on OpEd News) By Malachy Kilbride President Bush will soon ask Congress for about another $200,000,000,000 as the official death count of US service people killed in Iraq passes the 3,800 mark. This 3,800 does not even include those who have died because of their injuries after they left Iraq. The numbers are far higher! According to Iraq Body Count the number of hostile and non-hostile US injured evacuated by air from Iraq was almost 37,000 as of the end of August, 2007. The number of Iraqis killed as a result of the invasion and occupation is estimated to be over 1,063,825. That is more than those slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide according to www.justforeignpolicy.org . Furthermore, these figures do not capture the real horror, devastation, and unimaginable misery inflicted on the Iraqi people. A recently released report by the American Friends Service Committee’s Cost of War Campaign says that the United States is spending about $720 million per day for the Iraq W

For Immediate Release October 3, 2007 Contact: Pete Perry, 571-271-1313 Thelma Young, 202-234-8022 Peace and Human Rights Groups March to Burmese, Chinese and Indian Embassies on International Free Burma Day WASHINGTON, DC – Responding to a global call for Saturday, October 6th to be an international day of solidarity with the people's pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the Washington Peace Center and U.S. Campaign for Burma will march from the Burmese Embassy 23rd and S Streets, NW, to the Chinese Embassy at Kalorama Road and Connecticut Avenue, NW, and ending at the Indian Embassy on Q Street, near Dupont Circle. In response to last week's violent crackdown on Buddhist monks and civilians in Rangoon, Mandalay and other towns and cities in Burma, a popular group on the Web site Facebook has named October 6th International Day Of Support for Burma. The U.S. Campaign for Burma, a group dedicated to building broad-based support for freedom in Burma, and the W