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Not only has Dennis Kucinich changed his vote, he has changed my mind about his seriousness & progressive vision of the future both for America as a country & the whole world. I have a new respect for his commitment to helping the downtrodden & forsaken. The fact that he mentioned Native American philosophy of holistic health as well as his own vegetarianism when announcing his support for the health care bill makes me think Kucinich is probably rare in the political class, yet perhaps politicians will have the courage to be different than the stereotypical conservative ideal image of middle-aged typicality more & more as the years progress. The fact that we are very close to a historic expansion of compassion & care to millions of currently unprotected citizens, as well as working toward ensuring that the millions of currently insured citizens are not as brazenly exploited by private companies shows how far we have come over the past hundred years & more.  Well, in any case, Kucinich’s switch seems like very good news indeed. Meanwhile on Fox News of all places (if you can even call it a news channel with a straight face), President Obama seemed to hold his own remarkably well given the unfriendly environment.

Also, People for the American Way (who also have a petition for a constitutional amendment to reform the recent Citizens United Supreme Court campaign finance decision) have a new petition to Senate Majority Leader Reid to reform the filibuster.

The Wonk Room has an interesting story about an Air Force report / article urging the United States to unilaterally reduce its number of nuclear weapons dramatically! Which adds to the global movement to abolish nuclear weapons completely (Including Global Zero, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons / ICAN, Peace Action, Peace Action West, Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World & Coalition Partners, Union of Concerned Scientists, United Nations Office for Disarmament, & Friends Committee on National Legislation). I also found a good article on the Peace Action Blog about moving forward with a unified movement to realize the vision of a world free from the danger of nuclear weapons.

Here also are links to the Global Zero petition, Peace Action petition, ICAN petition to global leaders to work together on nuclear abolition & disarmament with the ability to leave comments, & the Union of Concerned Scientists’ tool for contacting President Obama about disarmament in the upcoming Nuclear Posture Review as well as FCNL’s very useful tool for contacting Senators about ratifying the upcoming START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with Russia.

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I’m sure there is a lot I have missed that I would like to mention, yet I will add more later if I can. Thanks for reading! & to bid you all goodnight & good day (depending on where you are in the world), here is an amazing concert with Miles Davis & Keith Jarrett as promised in the title: