Throngs tell Bush and Co. where to go...

The poet Sharon Olds, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award and professor of creative writing at New York University, was invited along with a number of other writers by First Lady Laura Bush to read from their works. She responded with the letter below... Three years ago artist Jules Feiffer also declined to attend the festival's White House breakfast as a protest against the Iraq War in "Mr. Feiffer Regrets."

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House... Read the entire letter in the Nation's "No Place for a Poet at a Banquet of Shame."

OpEdNews.com invites you to...
"Get to Know Ben Marble, an Interview with the Guy Who Told Dick Cheney to Go Fuc* Himself."

Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people who are opposed to war in Iraq and who speak out for relatives or loved ones in the military.

C-SPAN will cover some of the hundreds of thousands of people around the world and in Washington DC who are also speaking out - live today, beginning at 10:30 AM Central Time.

Google reacts to google-bombing

Christian Exodus has a mission... Founder, Cory Burnell (who remains in California) is, "...coordinating the move of thousands of Christians to South Carolina for the express purpose of re-establishing Godly, constitutional government." Google Bombers are also on a mission... regarding Intelligent Design, making sure it likns to an an intelligent resource.

And it works... just see what happens when you type that phrase or the phrase "miserable failure" into Google's search box, or even just the single word "failure." Today Google decided to explain the results with a new entry at the top right hand column of the results page, right where the sponsored ads usually appear you will now see the following: "Why these results? These results may seem politically slanted. Here's what happened."

Mathew Ingram reports the details in Google reacts to google-bombing.

Kelo v. New London

My apologies to any regular readers for failing to post anything at all lately... 'nuf said, here's today's thread:

Joan Claybrook is president of Public Citizen. Previously, she was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981.

Wikipedia says "Public Citizen is a Washington, DC-based left-wing non-governmental organization, founded by Ralph Nader in 1971. Their activities span across a diverse range of issues, including campaign finance reform and accountability, consumer protection, public health and trade policy."

Public Citizen provides one of the best way to find critical, independent, expert information on prescription drugs at WorstPills.org. Search by drug, disease or condition, drug family, drug-induced disease or policy issue.

More by and about Public Citizen:

• Consumer Project on Technology
• http://www.dethronedelay.org/
• http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/
• http://www.stealthpacs.org/
• http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/

What recent judicial ruling could possibly bring together Maxine Waters, Tom DeLay, Molly Ivins, George Will, Rush Limbaugh and Ralph Nader in solid opposition... while exposing the darker side of one of the nation's reputedly liberal newspapers? Mat Welch explains Why The New York Times ♥s Eminent Domain.