Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

Spengler at Asia Times Online writes:

^{Rice, death and the dollar}

The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market failure. There are long-term reasons for food prices to rise, but the unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from the weakness of the American dollar. Washington's economic misery now threatens to become a geopolitical catastrophe.

Months ago, I offered that China, Russia and other cash-rich nations held the antidote to the incipient credit crisis: "If the US wants to remain the magnet for world capital flows it became during the 1990s, it will have to allow the savers of the world to become partners in the US economy, that is, to buy into its first-rank companies."(Western grasshoppers and Chinese ants) ...

China is exchanging its depreciating reserves of US dollars for things of value, notably rice, with frightening consequences for dependent countries, and deadly consequences for American foreign policy.

Five Questions for Earth Day Maven Denis Hayes

In a few paragraphs, I’ll get to the promised interview, but first a few words of my own. (If you’re short on time, scroll to the interview box).

Although that first Earth Day in 1970 – which Denis Hayes coordinated – focused needed attention on the world's environmental troubles, it was also a diversion. Just a week after Earth Day, on April 29, the U.S. sent troops into Cambodia and, within three weeks, six students had been killed during protests at Kent State and Jackson State universities. Then, too, while millions joined in Earth Day activities, the event was peppered with corporate sponsors, many of whom were more interested in making a public relations coup than anything substantively ecological.

Indeed, some corporate participants took a downright hostile tone when it was pointed out that something engaged in by them might be environmentally destructive.

Nonetheless, for a time, in part because Richard Nixon needed something positive to balance his administration's disastrous continuation of the war in Southeast Asia and because he was pressured by Democrats like Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson and members of his own party, quite a number of successful environmental initiatives were undertaken, including the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and legislation on clean water and clean air.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

The S.S. Minnow's Rescue Rangers for tonight are Yashua, watercarrier4diogenes, hhex65, jlms qkw, Wes Opinion, joyful and Avila with dadanation as your loyal Gilligan and vcmvo2 serving as the Skipper.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Ninepatch writes a detailed and thorough guide to supporting our troops April in Iraq: Support the Troops. (Yashua)
• In a touching and heartfelt eulogy, Gilbert Wesley Purdy illuminates for us the life and accomplishments of a great man in Aime Cesaire Dies at 94. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• kyledeb offers the inspiring story of a movement that began with one person's determination to "do the right thing" in The New Migrant Megaphone: A Historic Month for the Sanctuarysphere. (Avila)
• rcbowman brings us a timely and well researched article on how to Help to prevent a civil war, or massacre, in Zimbabwe. (Yashua)
• Stranded Wind brings us another chapter in his vacation/relaxation series, Walkabout #3: Midnight Forest Musings, complete with superb photos that make you wish you could be there, too. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• With cuts to social programs and the rise in domestic violence funding for shelters for the victims of domestic violence is stretched thin. This is what's behind MA Liberal's exhortation in Give Me the Money and Nobody Gets Hurt. (Wes Opinion)
• Milos Janus Outlook reviews a variety of opinions to determine the Legal Options to Restore a Crumbling Constitution. (jlms qkw)
• tbrucegodfrey wants to light a fire under all of us at DKos with the 10 Feminist To-Do Items for Take Back the Blog 2008. (Yashua)

Please feel free to use this "...three hour tour..." as an Open Thread and to rescue and talk up your favorite diaries of the day!

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Abandon ship!

Remember Ron Paul?  You know, the Republican answer to Mike Gravel.  Paul won supporters on the left by being anti-war, and his Libertarian positions picked up folks from such diverse camps as those favoring legalized drugs, those wanting more diversity in their private arsenals, and those who felt living in this reality was just a scooch too restrictive.  On almost every issue, Paul had a different position than self-styled "maverick," J. Sidney McCain III.

Paul is still officially in the race, and even though McCain is now assured of a win at the Republican convention, the Paulites are taking the kind of tough, principled stand that Republicans take every election year... by declaring that everyone must abandon Paul and get behind McCain.

The subtly-named group Join or Die! declares that we stand at a crossroads in American history.  This is a time for revolution!  This is a time to hold the Republican Party accountable!  And they're going to demonstrate that revolutionary fervor by completely abandoning everything they've claimed to believe since the start of the Paul campaign.

Good work, Paulistas, I knew you had it in you.