Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode recently wrote a letter to his constituents, expressing his opposition to using the Koran during an unofficial and optional swearing-in ceremony for the nation's first elected Muslim congressman, Member-Elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Goode also expressed his, "fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."

I interviewed Mehdi Bray-director of the Freedom Foundation of the Muslim American Society who says this type of racist and Islamophobic remarks have no place in a diverse democratic nation.

Washington, DC | December 22, 2006| This week a controversial letter from Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode was released to the press. In his letter to constituents, Goode expressed his opposition to using the Koran during an unofficial and optional swearing-in ceremony for the nation's first elected Muslim congressman, Member-Elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Goode also expressed his, "fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."

A peaceful rally, on the morning of Dec. 22, 2006, protesting Lockheed Martin’s production of lethal cluster bombs turned ugly. The giant defense contractor’s headquarters are located in Montgomery County, MD, just north of Washington, D.C. As one of the activists, Patrick J. Elder, was speaking to the demonstrators about the deadly effects of the cluster bomb device, he was ordered “off the grass” by a police officer. When Mr. Elder immediately complied and moved to the sidewalk, he was then assaulted by a cop.

Agit-prop artist Banksy offers up a "what if" view of Bethlehem in the holy days — with the Israeli wall in place.

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Video from White House procession, Dec. 23

On December 19th, immigrant advocates outraged by last weeks raids on the Swift meatpacking plants descended on the I st headquarters of Immigration and Customs enforcement.

Sam Husseini: Do you know that Hussein Kamel said that there were no WMDs? Did you know that?
Colin Powell: What’s that?
Husseini: You cited Hussein Kamel in your UN testimony. Did you know that he said that there were no WMDs, did you know that at the time?
Powell: I only knew what the intelligence community told me."

washingtonstakeout.com

Mid afternoon on December 16, protestors handed out fliers and asked shoppers at Harris-teeter on Glebe Road in Ballston, VA not to buy their house brand hams as they are supplied by Smithfield,where workers are losing limbs to safety violations at the Tar Heel plant in North Carolina, a notorious anti-union state.

The United States government bears great responsibility for keeping our environment clean and Americans healthy and safe. And while science is rarely the only factor in public policy decisions, this input should be objective and impartial.

In recent years, however, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document this abuse, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created the A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.

A three-part interview series with John Judge.

Part 2: Military Recruitment and the Poverty Draft of Black and Latino Youth Audio

Nowadays, you can receive an email to your Blackberry with an alert that a registered sex offender has moved in next-door. At home, you can log online to view the faces of all of the registered offenders in your neighborhood … Yet, many child sexual abuse prevention activists, researchers, and survivors are not praising these technological advances. Ingrid Drake from the DC Radio Co-op explores the politicization of child sexual abuse in the US