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John McCain injected race directly into the general election, declaring on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulis that he supported an Arizona initiative by California businessman Ward Connerly. McCain has previously spoken out against such initiatives as “divisive.”

“Our message is simple: we will not be demonized. We will not be scape-goated and we will not be ignored,” says Janet Murgia President of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization. Murgia is leading NCLR, along with other civil and human rights groups, to challenge the national media and general public to reject the well orchestrated anti immigrant anti-Latino campaign being mobilized by right wing in the media, academia, and politics.

In a dramatic speech recently, Al Gore upped the ante in the debate over oil prices, the economy and climate change. As Republicans tried to sell the public on handing over more public land to Big Oil drilling, Gore challenged the nation to take an immediate, giant step away from fossil fuels by producing all electricity from renewable, carbon-free energy sources within 10 years. Currently about 75 percent of our electricity is produced by burning coal and natural gas, spewing global warming carbon into the atmosphere.

Three U.S. foreign bases are in the works that portend far-reaching consequences. They warrant addition to the scorecard kept by analyst Chalmers Johnson as to the total of U.S. foreign bases. Last year Johnson counted almost 750 bases in over 130 countries.

In June, months after reports surfaced that $500,000 the so-called Center for a Free Cuba took from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was missing, that agency temporarily suspended all its programs providing money and support for government opponents in Cuba. USAID’s 2008 budget for Cuba projects totaled $45 million. USAID was responding to a directive from Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

OAKLAND, Calif. — If a broad coalition of labor and community activists, health advocates and environmentalists has its way, pollution from ports around the country will be cut drastically in coming years, while at the same time, a group of port workers wrongly called “independent contractors” will gain a living wage and benefits.

I attended the big rally with Barack Obama here, July 24, not as a press representative but as one of the crowd. And what a giant crowd it was! The news reports counted “over 200,000” but to someone sandwiched in so tight I could hardly lift my hand to scratch my itching nose, much less applaud, it seemed like a million! The predictions had been for “anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000” and the official start was at 7, so I stupidly arrived at 6.30, too late to find anything but a tiny spot to stand on (when the pushing ceased), so far back from the monument where Obama spoke that I couldn’t even see the big screen. I saw only the heads and backs of those in front of me.

You knew something special was happening when the youngest, freshest face in the room got up, took charge and called the meeting to order — “Hello, I’m Scout Sanders, and welcome to the first meeting of Aliquippa for Obama!”

The specter of runaway inflation haunts our country. It is already beginning to create havoc and wreak devastation to our national economy. It is deepening and spreading hunger to new millions. It has caused the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in an ongoing job loss spiral. It is creating a crisis for rent payers and homeowners. It is complicating the struggle to stem the rising tide of home foreclosures.

At dawn on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, told a group of young people, “Comrades, within a few hours, we will either succeed or be defeated. But regardless of the outcome, listen well, comrades, this movement will triumph.”