Peace Corps News

Jim Walsh will be missed in Congress

Nepal RPCV James Walsh has announced he will retire from Congress at the end of his term in January 2009. He was first elected to represent New York's 25th Congressional District in 1988, following in the footsteps of his father, William Walsh, a mayor of Syracuse in the 1960s who spent three terms in Congress.  After running unopposed and collecting 91 percent of the vote in 2004, Walsh beat his 2006 Democratic opponent, Dan Maffei, by a mere 3,400 votes. Maffei immediately began campaigning afterward for 2008.  After the race, Walsh said he had gotten the message from voters angry with his unyielding support of the Bush administration and its war policies. After returning to Congress last year, Walsh opposed President Bush's troop surge in Iraq and later decided that he would support efforts for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops. Congressman James Walsh of New York served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal in the 1960's. Read more.

For 20 years, Walsh has served his constituents well as a moderate Republican voice, particularly refreshing after the GOP gained House control in the mid-1990s.  Walsh stuck his neck out, for example, to oppose GOP attempts to eliminate President Clinton's AmeriCorps national service program. He also opposed deep cuts in the federal food stamp program. And as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, he brought billions to the region. Most recently, he accounted for $2 million for a crime lab in Rochester, which is outside his district. Read more.

"When I went to Washington," Walsh says, "I wanted to help my community. I had the common councilor's mentality."  Jim's biggest footprint is going to be the money he brought home to his hometown in the form of a project that got to be called the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative, a banner he waved proudly above TMR. "They can fight all they want to about the earmarks (aka "local pork" grants)," he explained. "We should never give those up, no matter who's in the White House."  So what if he's on the list of top pork-barrelers. "Sue me," he commented with a grin.  Jim said his main goal in setting up the neighborhood grants for Syracuse was to increase the number of people in our town who own their own homes. That goal may not have been reached,  he explained, "but it's been a success because it shows neighbors there is hope, that somebody cares about them." Read more.

Read more about Congressman James Walsh.

---

Photo: Rep. Jim Walsh holds his wife DeDe's hand while making the announcement that this year will be his last year of service in the congress. Walsh made the announcement to the press in his office at the James Hanley Federal Building in Syracuse N.Y. His daughter Maureen looks on. Photo: Dennis Nett / The Post-Standard

Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act

Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance Act
Mr. President, for 6 years the President has demonstrated time and again that he doesn't respect the role of Congress, nor does he respect the rule of law. It is the latter point that I want to address this morning because it is the rule of law which draws us all together, regardless of politics, ideology, or party. It is the rule of law, not of men, which we swear to uphold when we take the oath of office in this Chamber, as Members do in the other Chamber, and certainly as the President does on January 20 every 4 years.  For 6 years this President has used scare tactics to prevent the Congress from reining in his abuse of authority.

A case in point is the current direction this body appears to be headed in as we prepare to reform and extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Many of the unprecedented rollbacks to the rule of law by this administration have been made in the name of national security. The Bush administration has relentlessly focused our Nation's resources and manpower on a war of choice in Iraq. That ill-conceived war has broken our military, squandered our resources, and emboldened our enemies.  The President's wholesale disregard of the rule of law has compounded the damage done in Iraq, made our Nation less secure, and as a direct consequence of these acts, we are far less secure, far more vulnerable, and certainly far more isolated in the world today. 

Consider the scandal at Abu Ghraib, where Iraqi prisoners were subjected to inhumane, humiliating acts by U.S. personnel charged with guarding them. Consider Guantanamo Bay. Rather than helping to protect the Nation by aggressively prosecuting prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, these individuals have instead become the symbol of our weakened moral standing in the world. Who would have ever imagined it? Consider the secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency and the practice of extraordinary rendition that allows them to evade U.S. law regarding torture.  Consider the shameful actions of our outgoing Attorney General who politicized prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney's Office, who was more committed to serving the President who appointed him than laws he was sworn to uphold as Attorney General.  Consider the Military Commissions Act, a law that allows evidence obtained through torture to be admitted into evidence.  It denies individuals the right to counsel. It denies them the right to invoke the Geneva Conventions. And it denies them the single most important and effective safeguard of liberty man has ever known, the right of habeas corpus, permitting prisoners to be brought before a court to determine whether their detainment is lawful.  Warrantless wiretapping, torture, the list goes on. 

Each of these policies share two things in common.  First, they have severely weakened our ability to prosecute the global war on terrorism, if for no other reason than they have made it harder, if not impossible, to build the kind of international support and cooperation we absolutely need to succeed in our efforts against stateless terrorism.  And second, each has only been possible because the U.S. Congress has not been able to stop the President in his unprecedented expansion of executive power; although I might add, some in this body have certainly tried. 

Whether these policies were explicitly authorized is beside the point. In every instance, Congress has been unable to hold this administration to account for violating the rule of law and our Constitution. In each instance, Republicans in the Congress have prevented this body from telling this administration that a state of war is not a blank check.  And those are not my words. Those are the words of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, nominated by President Ronald Reagan. 

Today, it appears that we are prepared to consider the proposed renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that whatever form it eventually takes will almost certainly permit the Bush administration to broadly eavesdrop on American citizens. Legislation, as currently drafted, that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans and the law of this Nation.  While it may be true that the proposed legislation is an improvement over existing law, it remains fundamentally flawed because it fails to protect the privacy rights of Americans or hold the Executive or the private sector accountable if they choose to ignore the law. 

That is why I will not stand on the floor of the Senate and be silent about the direction we are about to take.  It is time to say: No more.  No more trampling on our Constitution.  No more excusing those who violate the rule of law.  These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta.  They are enduring.  What they are not is temporary.  And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them. 

My father served as executive trial counsel at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals in 1945 and 1946. What America accomplished at those historic trials was not a foregone conclusion. It took courage.  When Joseph Stalin and even a leader as great and noble as Winston Churchill wanted to simply execute the Nazi leaders, we didn't back down in this country from our belief that these men, as terrible as they were -- some of the worst violators in the court of history of mankind -- ought to have a trial. We did not give in to vengeance.  As then, the issue before us today is the same. 

Does America stand for all that is still right with our world. Or do we retreat in fear?  Do we stand for justice that secures America, or do we act out of vengeance that weakens us?  I am well aware this issue is seen as political. I believe Democrats were elected to help strengthen our Nation, elected to help restore our standing in the world. I believe we were elected to ensure that this Nation adheres to the rule of law and to stop the administration's assault on our Constitution.  But the rule of law is not the province of any one political party. It is the province of each and every one of us as American citizens, on our watch and our generation, to make sure we are safer because of its inviolable provisions. 

Mr. President, I know this bill has not been reported out of the Judiciary Committee yet. But I am here today because if I have learned anything in my 26 years in this body, particularly over the last 7 years, it is that if you wait until the end to voice your concerns, you will have waited too long. That is why I have written the majority leader informing him that I will object to any effort to bring the legislation to the Senate floor for consideration. I hope my colleague, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy is able to remove this language from the FISA bill. Pat Leahy is as strong a defender of the Constitution as any Member of this body.  But if he is unable to do so, I am prepared to filibuster this bill 

President Bush is right about one thing: The debate is about security but not in the way he imagines it.  He believes we have to give up certain rights to be safe.  I believe the choice between moral authority and security is a false choice. I believe it is precisely when you stand up and protect your rights that you become stronger, not weaker, as a nation.  The damage that was done to our country on 9/11 was stunning. It changed the world forever.  But when you start diminishing our rights as a people, you compound that tragedy. You cannot protect America in the long run if you fail to protect our Constitution.

It is that simple.  History will likely judge this President harshly for his war of choice and for fighting it with a disregard for our most cherished principles.  But history is about tomorrow. We must act today and stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law.  Mr. President, this is the moment. At long last, let us rise up to it.  I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort.    Read more.

Read more about Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Chris Dodd.

Congressman James Walsh says it's time to withdraw troops from Iraq

Walsh says it's time to withdraw troops
Rep. Jim Walsh, in a dramatic break with the White House, returned Monday from a trip to Iraq saying it's time to bring troops home and stop funding the war. The moderate Republican from Onondaga representing New York's 25th Congressional District has struggled for months with conflicting emotions about the war. "Before I went, I was not prepared to say it's time to start bringing our troops home," Walsh said. "I am prepared to say that now. It's time." Walsh's announcement came as Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, told House members that the troop "surge" has made progress. But Walsh said he saw little evidence that much has changed in Iraq since he last visited four years ago. He said he hopes to meet with President Bush to convey his change of heart.  Congressman James Walsh of New York served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal in the 1960's. Read more.

Congressman Jim Walsh takes a special interest in Nepal
It goes back a long time. When I was just finishing up my college, I applied for the Peace Corps, and I was accepted in an agriculture program, which surprised me because I had very little practical agriculture experience. I was sent to Nepal. I lived in Nijgarh, Bara. Our district capital was Kalaiya. We had a dera in Birgunj that we shared with four-five of my Peace Corps friends. When we went to the district krishi bikas meeting, we would stay in the dera, and would take the bus back and forth to Kalaiya. It was a very bumpy ride. I worked with farmers in Nijgargh Pachayat. I worked with people who moved down from hills and people who were indigenous in the terai-- the tharus. I grew wheat, corn, rice vegetables. I did a little bit of everything. I was able to see a lot of Nepal while I was there. I traveled to the West: Pokhara and Annapurna, and to Namche and the Everest region. I try to, as best I could, maintain my ties with friends whom I lived with. I email back and forth. I obviously follow the politics and the recent changes in Nepal.

My hope is that I could go and observe the elections. That would be ideal. I think the elections are the critical event in the near term history of Nepal. But when I first came back here in 1991, and the government changed and democracy was established, we wrote to the king, and asked the king to respect the students and people who went to streets asking for democracy. And I saw the impact that the United States had, and I think that the United States continues to play a positive role encouraging democracy. So if I could go for the election, that’s when I would go. Dherai namaskar and namaste to mero daju bhai, didi bahinii, and I miss Nepal, and I am looking forward to coming back. Read more.

Read more about Congressman James Walsh.

Read more about Peace Corps Nepal.

Read more about RPCVs and Iraq.

Mike Honda's comfort woman resolution passes

Mike Honda's comfort woman resolution passes
The person who played the biggest role in the passage of the “comfort women” resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives is Mike Honda, a third-generation Japanese American. In January, Honda submitted a proposal for the resolution, which calls on the Japanese government to acknowledge and formally apologize for the forced mobilization of women to serve as sex slaves to Japanese soldiers during World War II. At that time, he was bombarded by criticism from Japanese people who accused him of trying to shame Japan on U.S. soil.

A moderator of one Japanese TV program questioned how he could have done such a thing considering his Japanese lineage. But Honda was unfazed, replying that an apology and reconciliation by Tokyo would not diminish its stature. It would actually strengthen relations with Korea and China, should they be satisfied with Japan’s efforts.

Honda spent 14 months in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. Following a Senate resolution in 1988, then U.S. President Ronald Reagan made a public apology for their internment. Honda said true reconciliation can only happen after repentance. He added that the passage of the resolution was not an end but a beginning. Honda is teaching the people of his ancestral home that the atrocities involving sex slaves cannot be resolved unless Japan accepts its responsibility. Congressman Mike Honda of California served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador in the 1960's.  Read more.

Read more about Congressman Mike Honda.

Read more about RPCVs and Human Rights.

Read more and Peace Corps El Salvador.

Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers

Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff write: Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
At its founding, the Peace Corps was premised on a radical and idealistic notion that many thought was impractical and even outlandish. It took bold vision and risk taking—a New Frontier mentality, a land-on-the-moon mentality—to give this notion a try. The notion was that we could trust Americans, mostly young Americans, to envision what it would take to improve the lives of villagers in the developing world, to survive hardships, and to make the best of the situation and its challenges. It took visionaries like Sargent Shriver, Bill Moyers and Harris Wofford—leaders who trusted and listened to Volunteers—to put this brilliant idea into practice.

Over the decades, there has been no change in Volunteers that warrants a diminution of this bond of trust. As stated above, we are impressed with the Volunteers with whom we serve. Almost without exception, they are idealistic, resourceful and hard working. We find that they are more mature and wise to the world than we were at their age. We are proud to serve with them, and know that many will be friends for life. We invite you to visit the Volunteers in the field to see for yourself. We believe you will be inspired as we are.

Unfortunately, today some Peace Corps managers seem to assume that Volunteers are slackers and adolescents needing strict rules and discipline. Volunteers often get the impression that the managers don't trust us. They often seem to act as if Volunteers need to be tethered so that we won't embarrass the Country Director or generate a Congressional inquiry. When the agency suffers a rare negative incident, its instinct is to construct a bulwark of paperwork and rules in hopes of preventing a recurrence. En loco parentis condescension and risk aversion seem to be common attitudes.

One probable cause of condescension is the substantial age differential between managers and Volunteers, who tend to be straight out of college with little work experience. These skewed demographics might pose problems, but they do not justify treating Volunteers like juveniles. The Volunteers may be young, but they are exceptional individuals with deep insights into their work, their sites, and their needs at site. Condescension is sure to discourage older Volunteers from serving.

Hierarchical organizations, like the present-day Peace Corps, are notoriously poor at listening. They tend to command, dictate and impose, demoralizing Volunteers in the process. In many cases what Volunteers hear from the managers are demands—to write more reports or comply with more rules. Predictably, some Volunteers become resentful and unproductive or they terminate their service early.

Early termination is a plague in the Peace Corps. It squanders the expenses of the selection process, screening, site preparation, training and settling in. It dashes the hopes and expectations of the community in which the Volunteer was serving. The best way to reduce ETs is for the Peace Corps to listen better to what the Volunteers need to be effective and productive, as S. 732 commands.

Read the rest of this article.

Senator Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings

Senator Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings
Read PCOL's executive summary of Senator Chris Dodd's hearings on July 25 on the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act and why Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter does not believe the bill would contribute to an improved Peace Corps while four other RPCV witnesses do.

Highlights of the hearings included Dodd's questioning of Tschetter on political meetings at Peace Corps Headquarters and the Inspector General's testimony on the re-opening of the Walter Poirier III investigation.

Read the executive summary here.

Watch Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings tomorrow on the web

Enhancing The Peace Corps Experience: S. 732, The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act

PCOL will not be in DC tomorrow morning to cover the hearings live but Senator Dodd's office has informed us that the hearings will be webcast and we will be watching them live and reporting on them.

The link to the video will be on Senator Dodd's Home Page and will begin about 15 minutes prior to the hearings.

We will be providing copies of all the witnesses' statements on our web site and photos from the hearings.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Dodd

Read a copy of the proposed legislation.

Read Senator Dodd's remarks on introducing the legislation.

CSPAN has informed us that they probably won't be televising the hearings but that they are still finalizing their schedule.

Witnesses speaking on the legislation will include:

Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter

Former Director Mark L. Schneider

David Kotz, Inspector General of the Peace Corps

Ms. Kate Raftery, Country Director, Eastern Caribbean

Chuck Ludlam, Volunteer, Senegal

Paula Hirschoff, Volunteer, Senegal

Kevin Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association

Nicole Fiol, Applicant to the Peace Corps

White House aides held political briefings at Peace Corps headquarters

White House aides held political briefings at Peace Corps headquarters
White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove's deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Spokesmen for the State Department, the Peace Corps and USAID said that only political appointees were invited to the briefings and that attendance was not compulsory. They also said that no specific actions were subsequently taken to boost political campaigns.

"We believe that these briefings were entirely appropriate," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "They conformed with all the applicable regulations."

The ambassadors included in the Rove briefing were Eduardo Aguirre Jr. of Spain, James P. Cain of Denmark, Alfred Hoffman Jr. of Portugal, Ronald Spogli of Italy, Craig Stapleton of France and Robert Tuttle of Britain. Gregory Slayton, the consul general to Bermuda, also attended.

In total, the seven diplomats donated more than $1.6 million to Republican causes from 2000 through 2006, according to a Center for Responsive Politics report on large Bush donors who were named ambassadors. The State Department, in a letter to Biden, said that Cain -- one of Bush's top fundraisers in North Carolina -- requested the meeting with Rove and did not notify department officials in advance.

The briefings struck some former ambassadors as highly unusual.

"That just didn't happen. Frankly, I am shocked to hear it," said former senator James Sasser (D-Tenn.), who served as President Bill Clinton's ambassador to China in the late 1990s. "I'm one who strongly believes that politics ought to end at the water's edge."

The Peace Corps briefing occurred in 2003 with about 15 political appointees, said Amanda Beck, a spokeswoman for the agency. The central mission of the Peace Corps is sending volunteers into Third World nations to help with development.

Beck, who said she attended the March 2003 "recap" of the 2002 elections, said the appointees who attended the briefing "did it on our free time during the day." She added: "It was a courtesy to political appointees," offered by the White House, and "there was no suggestion of getting involved in anything" campaign related.  Read more.

Iran RPCV Donna Shalala says Veterans report will be solution driven

Iran RPCV Donna Shalala says Veterans report will be solution driven
"We will not be issuing a report that points fingers. Our charge has and will be to focus on solutions that can be activated in a reasonable time. We will also not be issuing a report with a laundry list of recommendations. Our report will be action oriented and patient centered with our primary goal being to improve and simplify, where needed, the system of care for our service men and women so they can transition, as soon and as best as possible, to civilian life or active duty."

As we have said from the beginning, we are solution driven. We will not be issuing a report that points fingers. Our charge has and will be to focus on solutions that can be activated in a reasonable time. We will also not be issuing a report with a laundry list of recommendations. Our report will be action oriented and patient centered with our primary goal being to improve and simplify, where needed, the system of care for our service men and women so they can transition, as soon and as best as possible, to civilian life or active duty.

Our report is rooted in the work done by the Commission over the past three months plus the work of other Task Forces and Commissions that have been examining similar issues. This Commission has heard testimony at seven public meetings and has conducted 23 site visits to military bases, VA hospitals and treatment centers across the country. We have heard from experts on providing physical and mental health care, navigating health care and disability evaluation and compensation systems, members of Congress and their staff, and most importantly, service men and women, their families and the health care professionals charged with their care. The Commission is also conducting its own nationwide survey of service men and women and is currently analyzing the data. Read more.

University of Miami President and former Clinton Cabinet member Donna Shalala served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran in the 1960's. Read more about Donna Shalala.

Read more about Peace Corps Iran.

Hearings Scheduled to consider Dodd's new Peace Corps Legislation

Enhancing The Peace Corps Experience: S. 732, The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Dodd

Read a copy of the proposed legislation.

Read Senator Dodd's remarks on introducing the legislation.

It is not known at this time whether the hearings will be televised on Cspan.

Witnesses speaking on the legislation will include:

Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter

Former Director Mark L. Schneider

David Kotz, Inspector General of the Peace Corps

Ms. Kate Raftery, Country Director, Eastern Caribbean

Chuck Ludlam, Volunteer, Senegal

Paula Hirschoff, Volunteer, Senegal

Kevin Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association

Nicole Fiol, Applicant to the Peace Corps

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry objects to Mark Green as Ambassador to Tanzania

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry objects to Mark Green as Ambassador to Tanzania
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., placed a "hold" on the nomination, because Green, a Wisconsin Republican who ran against Jim Doyle for Governor in the 2006 election, is a political appointee and not a career foreign service officer, a Kerry aide said. According to the State Department, about 65 percent of U.S. ambassadors are career foreign service officers, with the remaining 35 percent political appointees.

Green, if approved, would replace the current ambassador to Tanzania, Michael Retzer, also a political appointee. Retzer was sworn in August 2005.

The Kerry hold is the second hurdle for Green. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., placed a hold on Green's nomination to underscore his dissatisfaction with Retzer's decision to revoke the authority of the top Peace Corps official in Tanzania to remain in the East African nation. Dodd released the hold after the State Department apologized to the Peace Corps official and promised Dodd that the Peace Corps could pursue its mission in Tanzania without interference. Read more.

Caption: Ambassador designate Mark Green

Why Chris Dodd joined the Peace Corps

Why Chris Dodd joined the Peace Corps
"Somebody asked me to. It was really no more complicated than that. I got excited about it. I think probably in the fall of 1965 when I was in my senior year and wondering "What am I going to do?" I thought what a great idea this was. So I went off, and I had friends who did other things, including go into the military. My closest boyhood friend was in the Marines and killed in Quan Tre in Vietnam in Februray 1968. When I came out, I thought I'd served my country. I hadn't been home in two years and, I thought, making a difference in my country, obviously things had gotten pretty rough, between the spring of 1966 and 1968 when I arrived home. But I felt that I'd contributed. But I realized there's possibly more, so I joined the National Guard and ended up being in the reserves over the next five or so years."  Read more.

Chris Dodd says the United States cannot afford to wait for President Bush's successor to end the war in Iraq
"We really can't wait another 18 months," the U.S. senator from Connecticut said while campaigning. "We have to have the convictions to stand up to this president." Dodd said the war has been waged "for all the wrong reasons" and that it is eroding both the nation's security and its moral leadership. For those reasons, he said, it was not difficult for him to vote in the Senate against continued funding for the Iraq war. "That wasn't a courageous vote. It was the right vote to cast," Dodd said.

"I don't know how you justify the status quo." Dodd, a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, said he won't stop suggesting ways to end the war. He was the only 2008 presidential candidate to co-sponsor the Democrats' most aggressive anti-war bill. "We're going to go back at it again. What bothers me is that we're not stepping up and doing what's right," he said. "Even the Republican leadership is now setting benchmarks, putting some parameters on the White House." Read more.

Paul Simon said he has known and respected Dodd for about 25 years and thinks Iowa provides a great venue to get his message to the people
Musical legend Paul Simon joined Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd on his stop in Fort Dodge. The Connecticut senator spoke to the crowd before introducing Simon, joking that he was “the warm-up act.” Dodd said that campaigning in Iowa can shift the focus on the presidential race to the issues and not the fund-raising race.

Dodd spoke about issues, including energy independence and his desire to end the war in Iraq, and he blasted the Bush administration. “I never imagined an administration could do as much damage as this crowd has,” he said. Dodd said that the U.S. has lost moral authority over the last six years. “We need to get back on track with moral authority abroad in the world,” he said, adding that withdrawing from Iraq will help the country regain lost prestige and make the country more secure. “I don’t mean just walking away. I want to see the United States use diplomacy,” he said. Read more.

Notes from All Over: Ethiopia, Dominica, Korea, Swaziland

Some 40 US Peace Corps volunteers are expected to arrive in Ethiopia soon to serve in the Amhara and Oromia regional states
Peter Parr, director of the Peace Corps office says that the volunteers will be working with the Ministry of Health, and will mainly be involved in efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. The Peace Corps volunteers will work with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Parr said that at present the Peace Corps office is being set up and Ethiopian staff are being recruited for administrative positions and to help volunteers in their training of local languages and customs. There director said, however, that he could not at present stage provide details of the 40 volunteers or the exact time of their arrival. Read more.

Ronald Reagan thought Chris Dodd was "far out liberal and left winger" who served as a volunteer in Dominica
If your name is Chris Dodd or Lowell Weicker, please, read no further. It seems our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, was no fan of either Connecticut senator during his eight-year tenure in the Oval Office. Weicker may have been a Republican, but he was no Reagan Republican. And Dodd? Well, he was a Democrat and therefore part of the evil empire. Reagan kept up a public persona as an affable, polite, regular guy. Even on the campaign trail, he would refrain from attacking his opponents. When Jimmy Carter took shots at him, Reagan famously responded: "There you go again." And, in Berlin he firmly — but politely — told "Mister Gorbachev" to tear down this wall.

But that doesn't mean Reagan was without his private opinions. Those he kept in a daily diary for himself — until now. Just out in hardcover is "The Reagan Diaries," which features 693 pages of his daily observations while in the White House. From the Reagan Diaries: "Today named Dick Stone, former Dem. Senator as personal envoy to Central America. Sen. Dodd & other far out liberals & left wingers are all over the tube screaming foul. Dodd calls me ignorant. His claim to expertise on Central Am. is 2 yrs. as a peace corps vol. many yrs. ago in Dominica."

PCOL Comment: "Mr. President, Senator Dodd served in the Dominican Republic not Dominica."  "You mean they're two different countries?" (Overheard in the Oval Office in 1984)  Read more.

Christopher R. Hill considering visit to Pyongyang soon after it shuts down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor
Senior negotiators in the six-party talks with North Korea -- including U.S. representative Christopher R. Hill -- are considering a visit to Pyongyang soon after it shuts down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, diplomats said. Although no trip has been scheduled, they said, the visit would take place in conjunction with the next round of six-party talks in Beijing, probably next month. The North Koreans are delaying Yongbyon's closure until they receive $25 million that was frozen in a Macao bank in 2005. An American bank, Wachovia, said yesterday that it had agreed to consider accepting the transfer.

Mr. Hill, the U.S. negotiator, told The Washington Times last year that he would not rule out a visit to Pyongyang but said he would not go while the Yongbyon reactor was operating. "We would consider a trip if it would serve our interest to do so," he said. "But our concern is that North Korea is continuing to run a nuclear reactor whose purpose is to make bombs and to be talking to them while they are making bombs doesn't appear to be in our interest." Any visit to the North Korean capital by an American official is rare and could be used by officials there to further their pursuit of international legitimacy. Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon. Read more.

Chris Matthews says: Anybody who‘s ever been in the Peace Corps knows people don‘t like being taken over
"I do not accept the idea that the American people were snookered into Iraq.  I know it‘s a comfortable argument to make that we were all tricked into it, but back when we went into the war in 2001, I came across—or 2002, it was in the summer of 2002, the year before we went to war, the American people were asked whether they supported the war, and they said by 55 percent of so they were for the—or 57 percent, they were for the war.  But then asked if there were significant casualties involved, Are you still for the war, and a majority came out against the war. Well, who the hell thought there wouldn‘t be casualties?"

"Well, the Iraqi people—look, anybody who‘s ever been in the Peace Corps knows this.  People don‘t like being taken over.  If you ask any African country, no matter how tough it‘s been since independence, Would you rather the white guys come back and run this place, they might run it a little bit better, maybe, maybe, maybe, they‘d say, To hell with that idea!  We want to run our own country.  Nobody likes to be invaded.  I think the president even said that a while back.  He must have known it intellectually, but he didn‘t act on it." Journalist Chris Matthews served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Swaziland in the 1960's. Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Ethiopia.

Read more about RPCV Senator Chris Dodd.

Read more about RPCV Diplomat Christopher Hill.

Read more about RPCV Chris Matthews.

A majority of adults (55%) support increasing the federal budget to allow everyone who is qualified and wants to serve in full-time service programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to do so

A majority of adults (55%) support increasing the federal budget to allow everyone who is qualified and wants to serve in full-time service programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to do so
In a recent Harris Poll, nearly three in four (73%) U.S. adults agree that it is important for young people to serve their country, but that this service should be voluntary. When given an array of non-military civilian service opportunities, like tutoring and mentoring disadvantaged youth, improving health services, building affordable housing, cleaning parks and streams and helping communities respond to disasters or a military option, almost two-thirds of adults (63%) agree that there should be another option in which young people can serve their country.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 2,337 U.S. adults conducted online between January 11 and 18, 2007 by Harris Interactive(R). This survey was conceived and developed by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. However, valuable input was sought and received from the National Youth Leadership Council.

Adults are not ready to reinstitute drafting young adults into service -- military or civilian. Slightly more than four in 10 adults (43%) support a draft of young adults where they could choose to serve in the military or in non-military civilian service. Only one in four (24%) support a draft for military service and far fewer adults support a draft of young adults only for non-military civilian service (14%). However, over three-quarters (77%) disagree with the concept that it is not important for young people to serve their country.

A majority of adults (55%) support increasing the federal budget to allow everyone who is qualified and wants to serve in full-time service programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to do so. Just under one-third (30%) oppose this idea. Support for increasing the federal budget for these programs is consistent across the generations as well as between the genders. There is also strong support for this idea amongst those who have earned post graduate degrees (64%).

Looking across party lines, somewhat stronger support for increasing the federal budget comes from Democrats (61%) and Independents (59%), than from Republicans (52%). Nevertheless, it appears to have bipartisan support. When we look at political ideology, it is a little different. While two-thirds of Liberals (66%) support an increase in the federal budget, only 44 percent of Conservatives feel the same way.

"What is significant about these results is the agreement across demographic groups and ideological lines. Republicans, Democrats and Independents all support higher funding for non-military civilian service opportunities," said Chris Moessner, Research Director in the Youth and Education Research Practice at Harris Interactive.

Jim Kielsmeier, President and CEO of National Youth Leadership Council offered these comments, "When the need is clear, America's youth respond. Military enlistments went way up after 9/11. Likewise, the volunteer response by AmeriCorps members and college and high school students to Hurricane Katrina was dramatic. Hundreds of thousands of young people headed to the Gulf Coast to help out -- often filling in for deployed National Guard troop. The current generation of draft-eligible youth and their younger counterparts are volunteering at record rates according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the government's primary volunteer service agency and AmeriCorps manager. An estimated 55 percent of youth ages 12 to 18, about 15.5 million, volunteer." Read more.

Senator Chris Dodd says he would like to expand the Peace Corps to 100,000 from the 7,000 currently serving
A former Peace Corps volunteer, Dodd said he would like to expand the corps to 100,000 from the 7,000 currently serving. There are only two Arab-speaking countries — Jordan and Morocco — with Peace Corps volunteer programs. "We haven't been asked to be something larger than ourselves for a long time," he said. Read more.

"John Kennedy, when he sent off the first Peace Corps volunteers...said you know it’s going to be a great thing in 40 or 50 years from now there will have been a million young people in this country that will have served their nation in a foreign nation..That’s going to help us in the conduct of foreign policy with a better understanding of what’s going on."

"Well, there have only been 170,000 of us that have come back as Peace Corps volunteers, but that experience was life altering and changing. You respected other people, you listened to them. It gives you a better perspective on your own country. I came back with a deeper appreciation of what the United States was and what it could do as a result of that experience." Read more.

Read more about National Service and the Peace Corps.

Christopher Shays calls for the creation of a National Public Service Academy

Christopher Shays calls for the creation of a National Public Service Academy
In a press conference with Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Arlen Specter, R-Penn., Shays will propose legislation commissioning the U.S. Public Service Academy. The institution would offer a free college education for young people who agree to five years of public service. "Just like we have military academies to create military leaders, we'd like to have an academy of public service [for people who] have devoted their education to this concept," Shays said in an interview. The academy would prepare young Americans for public service positions in fields including education, the environment, health care, foreign policy and law enforcement. Academy students would earn four-year bachelors of arts or bachelors of science degrees. Unique programs proposed include a mandatory junior year abroad and summer learning programs focusing on emergency response or military training. Congressman Chris Shays of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji in the 1960's.  Read more.

Stephen Barr writes: A Push to Create a Fresh Class of Public Servants
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Reps. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) re-introduced legislation to create a U.S. Public Service Academy. A version introduced last September was too late for any congressional action, but Clinton and Shays promised to try to get the votes for passage this year. Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond, who served in AmeriCorps together in Mississippi, came up with the idea for the academy after seeing friends shy away from government careers because of school debts or because they could not see themselves working in a large bureaucracy. "We are not getting people to come into public service," Moran said, in part because the cost of higher education steers young people to more lucrative jobs in the private sector. Moran said the academy is urgently needed because it would help fill staffing gaps in agencies created over the next decade as more federal employees retire.  Read more.

Pitching a Public Service Academy
When Shawn Raymond and Chris Myers Asch finished their two-year Teach For America assignments, they weren’t ready to leave public education behind. With little capital and lofty aspirations, the two started the nonprofit Sunflower County Freedom Project, which provides after-school mentoring and academic tutoring to hundreds of low-income students. Raymond, a Houston lawyer, and Asch, 33, executive director of the Sunflower Country Freedom Project, determined there was a need for a centralized public service academy after noticing a post-9/11 spike in student interest in social service projects. Raymond said both he and Asch could afford to live on a teacher’s salary while in Teach For America, but that many students emerge from college with major loans. “The problem is that so many kids are priced out of doing the kind of things that are good for our country because they owe so much money by the time they are done,” Raymond said. “Our point is, why not prioritize service and make the opportunities available to everyone.” That translates into what Raymond and Asch hope would be a four-year, all-expenses-paid education, courtesy of the federal government. They estimate the annual operating budget to be about $205 million (based on calculations that the median per student expenditure at state universities is about $40,000 each year).

Parts of the curriculum would look similar to a traditional liberal arts program, with graduates earning a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree. There are also service-oriented components to the education. Each summer, students would be enrolled in a different structured learning program (emergency response training and an armed forces internship, for instance). They would likely major in a traditional subject and be required to take courses in foreign languages and international relations – all in preparation for a junior year abroad. Raymond said he would like to see students choose a public service concentration – such as health care, education or law enforcement – and serve in that field after graduation. The current plan calls for the university to place graduates in jobs based on the students’ areas of interest and on regional employment needs.  Read more.

Read more about the proposal to create a National Service Academy.

Coffee and the Peace Corps

Honduras RPCV Jon Ferguson owns Cultiva  where he sells organically grown, fair-trade coffee
"I was a Hillside Farming Agricultural Extensionist Peace Corps Volunteer in Northwestern Honduras in 2000," Ferguson said. “I took three months of extensive language and technical training, mostly related to soil conservation and organic farming.” The group worked a little with coffee production and visited a few farms, he said.

After the Peace Corps, Ferguson relocated to Seattle and found a job with Zoka Coffee and Tea Co., famous for training its baristas for competition. After returning to Lincoln, Nebraska Ferguson tried his hand selling records, but he got sick of haggling with buyers and sellers. “I always felt that I wasn’t going the right direction in my life,” he said. “I kept on thinking about my experiences in the Peace Corps … and decided that I should get into coffee.”

Coffee is the second largest commodity traded in the world, just after oil, and it uses more pesticides in its production than any other agricultural product. “Most everything I have is organically grown, fair-trade coffee,” Ferguson said. Ferguson opened Cultiva Coffee, which he describes as a micro-roastery, on Dec. 20 of last year. Café Imports, where Ferguson buys his beans, sells direct relationship coffee, meaning the people who buy the coffee have direct dealings with the people who grow the coffee, as opposed to buying beans from a coffee broker, which is basically commodity coffee. “I wanted to help improve the lives of marginalized peoples in coffee producing countries, aka the third world,” Ferguson said.  Read more.

Donna Tabor, a Nicaragua Peace Corps worker, told them, "We can sell your beans"
In January 2002, the banks were about to foreclose on El Porvenir, this 640-acre cooperative coffee finca, or farm, in northwest Nicaragua. A rustic wooden warehouse held a 30,000-pound harvest in want of a market. Gaitan, the co-op's vice president, listened stoically as Donna Tabor, a Peace Corps worker, told them, "We can sell your beans." Such confidence is characteristic of Tabor, who lives in Nicaragua. But when she presented the idea to Building New Hope, the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit she works with, its co-founder Barbara Wein took a deep breath and wailed, "How are we going to sell 30,000 pounds of coffee?"

On the morning of May 7, 2002, a 20-foot truck pulled up to the loading dock at the La Prima Espresso Co. roastery in Pittsburgh. John Notte, La Prima's roaster, had met Tabor the year before when she was in Pittsburgh for a visit. "I'm a coffee man, and these farmers are coffee men," he said, explaining his motivation to help. "I didn't want to just write a check. I wanted to be part of something." What Notte and La Prima owner Sam Patti agreed to be part of was a project to roast the first 2,000 pounds of the harvest for free, the rest at cost, and to sell it in their coffee shops, remitting more than half from the sales to Building New Hope. Meanwhile, the nonprofit shot off an initial payment of $3,000 to El Porvenir to keep the banks at bay.

The 43 families at El Porvenir share the anxiety of another lean season. But the cooperative and the nonprofit arrived at an encouraging milestone this month. Wein, with a small entourage that included Notte, made the two-hour, bone-jarring, four-wheel trek up what in few spots only vaguely resembled a road to hand-deliver the last payment. At a makeshift ceremony to mark the occasion, Gaitan and Eugenio Laguna Gutierrez, the president of El Porvenir, sat at little school desks with their guests on a covered concrete porch amid the ballyhoo of chickens and roosters. "Everything you have sent us has gone toward our debt, which is now a very small amount," Gaitan told the group. He said the farm incurred much of its debt to repair property after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. "The policy of the government here is that the poor person does not exist. Had it not been for your effort, there would be 43 more families in the streets.

"We know you made a sacrifice to come here," Gaitan said. "Access is difficult, and, this is Nicaragua." He smiled at the chuckles that conceded Nicaragua's status as a tourist destination. "It was a leap of faith on both our parts," said Wein. "But when John committed to roast the beans, how could we say no?" Wein founded Building New Hope in 1992 with her husband, Jorge Portillo, a native of El Salvador. They initially set out to help civil war refugees repatriate in El Salvador, in a village the returnees named Nueva Esperanza - New Hope. Since then, with Tabor on the ground and vigorous in the cause of Nicaragua's betterment, Building New Hope has helped construct and support schools, small businesses, a women's clinic and water systems in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Read more.

Congressman Sam Farr supports the International Coffee Organization
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world and over 25 million people depend on it for their livelihood. After hitting a 30-year low in 2001, the price of coffee has begun to recover. But the extra cents in no way signal an end to the coffee crisis. Despite higher prices, small-scale farmers still cannot earn a decent income. As a result of the crisis, many coffee farmers have lost their farms or have been forced to migrate to cities or other countries. In Colombia, farmers who once could make a good living harvesting coffee often have turned to growing coca, the base ingredient for cocaine.

"Though prices have recovered somewhat recently, the effects of the coffee crisis are still reverberating among the many millions of vulnerable people dependent on coffee for their livelihoods," stated Congressman Farr. "Back when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, local coffee farmers were able to support their families with a stable income. Now that we have rejoined the International Coffee Organization, I hope the United States will be able to take an active role in returning that kind of stability and security to coffee farmers throughout the world." Congressman Sam Farr served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the 1960's. Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Returned Volunteers working with coffee growers in Central and South America.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Global Warming

Congo Kinshasa RPCV Beth Duff Brown writes: Global Warming Effects Hunting for Inuit
Nattaq and other Inuit, the Arctic people of the United States, Canada, Russia, and Greenland - in Alaska where they're known as Eskimos - have been warning the world for more than a decade about the shifting winds and thinning ice. Hunting patterns thousands of years old are in jeopardy. 'Our way of life is at stake,' says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, just nominated with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change. Watt-Cloutier will argue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington on Thursday that the United States, as the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, is violating her people's rights.

While for many global warming is a distant threat, for the Inuit its impact is a reality now. 'It's about real people who live on top of the world,' she said this week before leaving for the hearing. The commission, part of the Organization of American States, has no authority over the U.S. government. But Watt-Cloutier says she's looking for a moral and political victory, to help make climate change a bigger issue in future elections. Nattaq is one of 63 Inuit from Canada and Alaska on the OAS petition she is representing, filed on behalf of the world's 155,000 Inuit. Read more.

RPCV Mike Tidwell's house, once an ordinary 1915 bungalow, has become perhaps the closest thing to a "zero-carbon" home in the area
Across the Washington area, homeowners alarmed about utility rates and greenhouse gases are seeking to slash their power use or produce their own energy from renewable sources. Among them, Tidwell and a handful of others have succeeded in creating homes that require only minimal energy from power plants and fossil fuels. Tidwell, an environmental activist concerned with climate change, has outfitted his home with energy-efficient appliances, a corn-burning stove and solar panels. Now, the two-story house sometimes produces more electricity than it needs and sends the surplus to Pepco's distribution system.

Tidwell and his then-wife started with a $7,500 home-equity loan. They replaced incandescent light bulbs with more costly compact fluorescent bulbs, which work in the same fixtures and provide the same light but use a third as much energy. They bought an EPA-designated "Energy Star" refrigerator, which cost $150 more but used less than a third as much power. For heat, they replaced a natural-gas furnace with a $2,400 stove that burns corn kernels. Because corn consumes carbon dioxide as it grows, burning it doesn't release new greenhouse gases, he said. The corn, of a type used for animal feed, is grown in Mount Airy and brought to Takoma Park in a truck that burns soy-based biodiesel fuel. In town, the corn is stored in a 25-foot-tall silo owned by a community cooperative. In especially cold months, Tidwell has to get a load once a week. Author Mike Tidwell, founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action  Committee, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Congo Kinshasa. Read more.

Congressman Thomas Petri working on bill to ease global warming
Thomas Petri has co-authored legislation with Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., called the Keep America Competitive Global Warming Policy Act, a bill that gradually imposes restrictions on the carbon-based pollution that many scientists believe is causing global warming. A little over a week ago Petri and Udall met with leaders of major businesses and environmental groups in Washington, D.C., to discuss global warming issues and the framework advanced at that meeting calls for a mandatory cap-and-trade program with specific limits on greenhouse emissions. Petri said businesses that succeed in reducing emissions would be allowed to sell unused emission allowances to other businesses that are having greater difficulty complying with limits.

Petri said the legislation that is being proposed is very similar to what European countries are doing to help the environment but admitted that it would be impossible for every industry to reduce all of their emissions. “The whole idea of making limestone is to heat it, and it emits carbon,” Petri said. “But we need it for cement and a variety of other things. So if you had a one size fits all and you said you can't emit, they would be out of business and it would disrupt our economy.  “This is more of a balance approach that will enable people to emit if it is really necessary, but will kind of discourage them from doing it and encourage people to use technology to reduce emissions as much as possible,” he added. “It's a place to start. It doesn't make everyone real happy but it looks like it is going to get pretty broad support.”

Petri admitted there is a large amount of controversy surrounding global warming and that most people think carbon-based emissions have some sort of an effect on the issue. “It is true the Earth warmed and cooled a number of times before people got involved, but it's also true that there has been a big increase in carbon-based emissions into the atmosphere,” Petri said. “Mostly everybody thinks that has some contributing factor to global warming.”  Congressman Tom Petri of Wisconsin served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Somalia in the 1960's. Read more.

Read more about what Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are doing about Global Warming.

Senator Chris Dodd introduces Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act

Senator Chris Dodd introduces Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act
The bill will provide seed monies for active Peace Corps volunteers for demonstration projects at their specific in-country sites. It authorizes $10 million in additional annual appropriations to be distributed by the Peace Corps as grants to returned Peace Corps volunteers interested in undertaking "third goal'' projects in their communities. The bill will also authorize active Peace Corps volunteers to accept, under certain carefully defined circumstances, private donations to support their development projects.

For any organization to thrive, managers and leaders must have access to first-hand knowledge and perspectives of those working on the front lines. And so, this bill will establish mechanisms for more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, including staffing decisions, site selection, language training and country programs. This bill will also explicitly protect certain rights of Peace Corps volunteers with respect to termination of service and whistleblower protection.

We must bring the Peace Corps into the digital age. To that end, this bill will provide volunteers with better means of communication by establishing websites and email links for use by volunteers in-country.

Inadequate funding and internal structural roadblocks have unfortunately resulted in an unfulfilled Presidential pledge to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2007. Despite a large increase in volunteers signing up for the Peace Corps immediately after September 11, the Congressional Research Service reports that the number of Peace Corps volunteers actually declined in 2006. It is crucial that we work to reverse this troubling trend. That is why this bill authorizes active recruitment from the 185,000 returned Peace Corps volunteer community for second tours as volunteers and as participants in third goal activities in the United States.

This bill will also remove certain medical, healthcare and other impediments that discourage older individuals from becoming Peace Corps volunteers. It will create more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, and require reports on costs associated with extending post-service health coverage from 1 month to 6 months. 

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.  Read more.

RPCVs and Medical Marijuana

RPCV David Harde receives Prison Sentence for Medical Marijuana
With his white hair, neatly-trimmed moustache, and exemplary posture, Harde looked the part of a gentle, aging schoolteacher. But even with his shoulders straight, his words were those of a man who was spiritually downtrodden.  Shortly before sentencing, Harde himself was permitted to address the court. With a shaking voice that stifled sobs, the defendant detailed his remorse for the consequences of his actions. "I am deeply sorry that I engaged in illegal activity," the defendant proclaimed, while simultaneously regretting the unnecessary expense of his prosecution. "The awareness of my folly and its consequences never leaves me -- it tortures me by day and haunts me by night." "I had a misconception about what I could do under the law. I was trying to help people and I was misguided in how I could help them. I was imprudent and unwise," Harde continued, before summing up his address with declarations of concession. "I realize the appropriateness of our federal drug laws. I have a deepened respect for the laws of our land. I have accepted responsibility by pleading guilty humbly."

In 2005, Harde was arrested by El Dorado County law enforcement for his role in a patient cooperative. After prosecuting Harde locally for several months, District Attorney Gary Lacy turned the case over to the U.S. Attorney's office and created a change of jurisdiction that eliminated the possibility of a successful medical defense in the case. Since federal courts do not recognize state medical marijuana laws, Harde was left with little recourse once he found himself facing charges from the U.S. government. He quickly changed his plea to guilty in order to accept a negotiated deal that reduced the charges against him to one felony count of cultivation.

An activist and dedicated community leader, Harde was particularly displeased by restrictions on his voting rights. From his solar-powered natural foods store to his pioneering of official organic farming guidelines to his appointment to the El Dorado County Fair Board, Harde has been nothing short of a role model for involved citizenry. And, to ask for leniency in his case, his citizen supporters not only packed the courtroom, but also packed the mailbox with character letters on Harde's behalf. "I received 110 character letters on behalf of the defendant. He comes in with a panoply of support, and that's wonderful. Most defendants in this court come in with just themselves and a public defender," Judge Damrell observed. "But is it fair for him to get less because of this? Just because he has support, should he be treated differently from other defendants?"

Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. was at once regretful and firm in his decision. "I gotta obey the law -- how do I get around that?" the judge asked defense counsel J. David Nick, citing the sentencing requirements for a Class A felony. "You're suggesting to this roomful of people that I have the power to grant probation, and I want to dispel that. I can't go willy-nilly and do what I want to do. I have no choice in the matter." And with these claims of powerlessness, Judge Damrell proceeded to sentence Harde to two and a half years in prison.  Read more.

RPCV Sam Farr reintroduced Bill to Assure Fair Trials for Medical Marijuana Patients
In the wake of the June, 2005 Supreme Court ruling allowing federal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients even in states where medical use of marijuana is permitted, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) and a bipartisan group of cosponsors have re-introduced legislation to guarantee such defendants a fair trial. The measure comes one week after the release of a new national Gallup poll in which 78% of respondents supported "making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering."

The Steve McWilliams Truth in Trials Act would allow individuals accused of violating federal marijuana laws to introduce evidence in federal court that they followed state law for the purpose of alleviating suffering. Defendants could be found not guilty if the jury finds that they followed state medical marijuana laws. At present, medical marijuana patients are barred from telling federal jurors that their use of marijuana was for medical purposes, even when state laws explicitly permit medical use.

The bill is named for San Diego medical marijuana patient and activist Steve McWilliams, who used marijuana to relieve the severe pain he suffered from a series of auto accidents. Facing federal prosecution for growing 25 marijuana plants in his yard, forbidden from mounting a medical-necessity defense, and unable to use the one medicine that eased his suffering for fear of being jailed, McWilliams committed suicide on July 12. 

"By providing an affirmative defense for medical marijuana patients, my legislation provides a reasonable way to accommodate contradictory federal and state laws on a very important medical matter," said Rep. Farr. "I am offering a compassionate, common sense solution and I hope my colleagues in Congress will put aside their preconceptions and give it fair consideration." Read more.

Read more about RPCVs and Medical Marijuana.

RPCV Congressman Tom Petri says US needs to consider Partition of Iraq

RPCV Congressman Tom Petri says US needs to consider Partition of Iraq
Republican Congressman Tom Petri voted for the resolution which expressed disapproval of President Bush's troop surge in Iraq, but he said that "Just saying 'no' is simple obstructionism. What we need is a new way forward to replace the old way that isn't getting us anywhere. " He said that the different groups in Iraq lack the trust in each other to support democratic government in a unified nation.

"We should seriously consider that we have two basic options: First, choose a faction to stabilize and rule the country through force, much as all of Iraq's previous regimes did - and that's hardly an attractive option; or, second, bring about a partition of the country to form a loose federation where the Shias, the Sunnis and the Kurds can each govern themselves while leaving the others alone," Petri said. "Our enterprise in Iraq has been carried out with the best of intentions, and our men and women in the armed forces have performed with great heroism, skill and honor - but we have to accept reality," he said.

"We have a responsibility to help stabilize the situation, and doing so is in our national interest. But I don't think it's fair to ask our sons and daughters to be policemen in a civil war. Sadly, it seems that most Iraqis do not embrace democratic government unless it is dominated exclusively by their own individual groups. The Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds are willing and able to establish law and order within their own ethnically homogeneous areas. The efforts to push out other groups currently underway in Iraq are deplorable, but it's surely not unexpected given Iraq's history and desperate situation. The sectarian militias have popular support because they have easily-understood plans to establish security within their spheres for their own people. Instead of fighting the militias, we need to co-opt them. We need to help acceptable local tribal leaders, government leaders and religious authorities establish authority over their areas. We also need to seek the positive involvement of Iraq's neighbors. Some of them may be meddling, or may be tempted to meddle, but at the end of the day, instability in Iraq means instability for everybody in the region. Let us set about the task of helping Iraq's three main groups to regroup and stabilize their own territories so that we can withdraw to our bases and ultimately get out altogether." Read more.

Petri votes against troop surge
Rep. Tom Petri has joined a small but growing number of Republican lawmakers who have broken ranks with the Bush administration by showing disapproval to escalate troop levels in Iraq. Petri’s announcement in a floor speech came with the caveat that he didn’t think the nonbonding House resolution addresses the need for a new policy. Petri suggested the United States should support the partition of the country into a confederation of regions each dominated by Shiites, Sunnis or Kurds who "can each govern themselves while leaving the others alone."

Congressman Tom Petri of Wisconsin served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Somalia in the 1960's. Read more about Congressman Thomas Petri.