election

I just learned that Barack Obama and John McCain will appear together on the same stage for the first time in the presidential race.  What is the incredible force bringing them together? Evangelical megachurch leader and best-selling author Rev. Rick Warren. The forum at Saddleback Church will also be co-sponsored by Faith in Public Life.

Mr. Warren, the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose-Driven Life,” said he had called each man personally to invite him to his event, which will focus on how they make decisions and on some of Mr. Warren’s main areas of focus, like AIDS, poverty and the environment.

[...] Mr. Warren said he would devise his questions with input from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders associated with [Faith in Public Life].

As the value of a "Summer Holiday Oil Tax Break" is being debated between the presidential candidates, Oil companies are benefiting from the raise oil prices and wind fall profits. This windfall profits and high oil prices flow directly from an unwise, immoral, and illegal war on the precious people of Iraq.

Consumers for Peace has launched a campaign to hold at least one of these companies accountable and call upon them break with the conventional wisdom of capitalism and share in the wisdom of peace and justice.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that yesterday, when the Organization of American States held an emergency session to deal with Andean crisis, the United States was the only country that spoke out in support of Colombia’s strike. Every other country in the Hemisphere condemned Colombia’s military strike in Ecuadorian territory as a breach of sovereignty.

I just got an update from SOA Watch saying that Dennis Kucinich will be participating in the vigil this weekend. That's great! The Nation recently published an article evaluating all of the Democratic presidential candidates' positions on the School of the Americas.

I didn't manage to watch the Democrats debate on TV last night, but I noted in the Washington Post an interesting exchange about Pakistan and whether national security should trump human rights (see excerpt after the jump). I think that any view of "national security" that doesn't include human rights is short-sighted to start with.

The 3D Security Initiative does great work on this subject - their 3 D's are development, diplomacy, and defense - noting that "Security means freedom from fear and freedom from want."