Diary: Comments from The Latest Newsletter; Alito, Site Upgrades, K

Now we know that Bush and his fellow criminals (cronies is no longer an operative word... even calling these worthless pieces of detritus neanderthals is an insult to our evolutionary predecessors) are drooling to have Alito-the-democracy-sellout on the supreme court, so he'll be their get-out-of-jail-free card. We're getting to see what a scheming, foul, anti-democratic, anti-we-the-people person Samuel Alito is. There is no way that he can be approved for the Supreme Court. We must show all the members of the senate that his approval will set up a level of protest that has not been seen before since the Boston Tea party. And we need to show it before he has been approved. That same intensity of conviction must also be shown regarding the voting integrity issue. On that front, the flames are starting to be fanned. More and more states have local action groups. Find yours and sign up to help with volunteer support and money. We have to get paper ballot and open source software laws passed.

Here at OpEdNews, Joan Brunwasser is off to a great start as voting integrity editor. We've always covered this subject as an essential issue. But you'll be seeing even more regular and in-depth coverage than before. Or I should say, you already are getting more.

A Huge Step for A News Website
You don't see it yet, but we've started a major, major new function on OpEdNews-- the first step in building a site that is unparallelled on the planet. Whew. That may sound a bit grandiose, but we're adding a second feature that is not performed by any other news and opinion site, anywhere. By mid February, we'll add over 150 new "inside pages" covering topics ranging from abortion, activism, aging, corruption, impeachment the middle east, revolution, the arts, business, science... and we'll be looking for volunteer editors, co-editors and assistant editors for each of those pages. Interested? Let me know if you have an area of interest you have expertise and or passion in supporting.

At the same time the inside subject pages "go live" we'll also be starting inside "local pages" to support local activism. These will be progressive, but non-partisan. Again, we're looking for volunteer editors for local pages at the state, county, city, area and neighborhood levels. Each page will have sections for op-eds, links to news and announcements and local op-eds, ads, links to organizations,

Here's the subject list so far. It is growing quickly as new articles are submitted.

Abortion, Activism, AdministrativeIssues, Adoption, Advertising/Marketing, Aging/Anti-aging/Longevity, Agriculture, Alt Culture, Animal Rights, Animations, Appointments, Arts, Banking, Blogging/Netroots, Books/Magazines, Buddhism, Budgets/Funding, Bush, G.W., Business/Industry, Cartoons/Graphics, Casework, Charity, Children/Teens, Christianity, Church-State Issues/Theocracy, Civil Rights, College, Communications, Community/Tribal, Congress, Consciousness, Consumer Affairs, Corporate Accountability, Corruption, Crime, Criminal Justice, DLC Republicrats, Death Penalty, Defense, Democracy, Democrats, Design, Disasters, Drug Companies, Marketing, Drug Policy/Culture/Laws, Earth/Gaia, Economy/Economics, Education, Egypt, Election/Voting Issues, Electronic Voting, Energy, Environment/Ecology, Espionage, Spygate, FBI, NSC, Ethics, European, Evolution, Exercise, FEMA, Families, Fascism/Cant Happen Here, Fashion, Federal Employees, Feminine/Feminism, Food/Drink/Dining, Foreign Affairs/Policy, Founders of America, Freedom, Fundamentalism, GLBT/Gay Issues, Gadgets, Games, Globalization/WTO/WB/NAFTA/etc, God, Good News/Success, Government Affairs, Grant Requests/Funding, GrassRoots, Gun Control, HIV/AIDS, Hate/Discrimination, Health Care Universal, Health/Medicine/Wellness, Heartwarming, Homeland Security, Housing, Human Rights, Humor, Humor/Jokes, Immigration, Impeachment, Indigenous Peoples, Inspirational, Interior/National Parks, International Criminal Court, Internet, Iraq, Iraq, Islam, Israel/Palestine, Jobs/Outsourcing, Jordan, Judiasm, Judiciary/Judicial Nominations, Justice Dept, Karl Rove, Kurd, Labor/Unions, Law/Legal/Torts, Lebanon, Living, Love, Media, Medicare/Medicaid, Mens Issues, Mental Health/Therapy, Middle East, Military, Mind/Body/Heart/Spirit, Movies/Film, Music, Native Americans, Nature, Obituaries, Oil, PSI/Parapsychology, Patriot Act, Peace, Pensions, People/Gossip, Personal, Photography/Images, Plamegate Investigation, Poetry, Politicians, Pollution, Pop Culture, Post Office, Poverty, Privacy, Progressive Media, Progressive Values and Issues, Protest/ Civil Disobedience, Psychology/MentalHealth, Quotations, Race/Racism, Relationships, Religion, Republicans, Retirement/Seniors/Elders/, Revolution, Right Wing Media, Rove, Karl, Satire, Saudi Arabia, Scandals/Bush/GOP, Science, Self Help, Personal Growth, Shia, Small Business, Social Security, Software, Space/Aerospace, Spirituality, Sports, Story, Students/Youth, Sunni, Supreme Court, Taxes, Technology, Television, Terrorists/Terrorism, Therapy, Think Tanks/Advocacy Orgs, Torture, Trade, Traitor/Criminal Right Wingers, Transportation, Travel, Union/Worker Issues/Labor, United Nations, Veterans, Welfare, White House, Womens Issues, World Issues, Writing

So... being at the cutting edge takes YOUR support-- volunteer editors, readers who support us by telling other favorite sites to link to or reprint our articles, readers who send us tips for articles to link to, writers we should be featuring or inviting to join our team (80+ and growing) and... financial support. The right wing has think tanks that put out articles. They are funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year. Many see more than $25 million a year.

Last month we published over 300 articles. We did it on under $2000. We are reaching legislators. Supporting candidates and activism organizations. Imagine what we could do if we had ten times that much. That's still just one hundredth what one of the average big right wing think tanks get. Yet, if each reader gave us just ten cents... a month!!!... we'd have it. Or, if just one out of 100 readers gave us $10, we'd be there. Think about making a commitment, at the start of this year to an automatic monthly contribution to OpEdNews-- even $5 makes a huge difference, and a $10 or $25 monthly contribution takes us that much closer to reaching a financial situation that would allow us to take our activism and policy advocacy and outreach to the next degree. If you can't commit to a monthly contribution, please start off the year with some contribution-- $1000, $5, $10 $25. We're still waiting for a reader to break our previous record of $250. We're going to double our readership in the next six months. That means reaching more people, turning ideas into action and CHANGE. It won't happen if you don't do something to help us. Contribute NOW

Media Wasteland-- Airtime Pollution
As I write this, CNN is spending all it's time resources on the Miners trapped underground. It's newsworthy, but when they commit all or most of their airtime to one news story, they fail us. They fail to cover the biggest corruption story in US history. I'm sorry. I don't want to know that much about the mine rescue details. I switch to MSNBC and there's country music on the Don Imus show, with his his idiot patter partners. Give me a break. Click. CBS is doing a demonstration on food that hydrates your skin.NBC is doing a feature on spider phobia-- arachnophobia, ABC is doing a feature on a woman who grew up a fundamentalist, who had a crush on Moses. Now she's married to Jew and seems to have awakened from the cult-hypnotization she was immersed in as a child. At least this interview is on an intelligent topic. But overall, hardly any discussion of anything substantive, of the crisis of democracy-- the mainstream media should have their free licenses at least evaluated for the level of crap they are putting on the airwaves.

Kabbalah
OpEdNews tries to explore the intersection of religion and politics and other areas of life. Todays articles include a contribution from Rabbi Mindy Ribner, giving a Kabbalistic perspective on the Hebrew month of Tevet. OpEdNews would like to see progressive, spiritual, transpersonal perspectives from all religious and spiritual perspectives, from Atheism to Zoroastrianism and invites well written articles. The more we know about each other, the more we will understand and the less likely we will miscommunicate.