A week after a white supremacist attacked the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and on the day that three teenagers are being sentenced in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, for brutally beating and killing a Mexican immigrant, it's time we confront the fact that behind violently anti-immigrant and supremacist rhetoric is a real urge and a real encouragement for actual violence.

Last week marked six months on the job for President Obama and the 111th Congress. Together, we've already accomplished a lot when it comes to health care reform. Though we've taken the first major steps to reform our broken health care system, there are still many steps left until we finish the job.

We need a health care reform plan which takes power away from insurance bureaucrats who stand between us and our doctors. We need to put the power of medical decision making back into the hands of patients and doctors. We need some real competition from either a public option or non-profit co-ops that will force insurance companies to treat their enrollees as customers instead of mere pawns to be used in the objective of obtaining a higher stock price on those options the executives got last Christmas.

As soon as the St. Louis police officers knocked on the door of the home of Vera Thomas in April 1991, a parade of horribles began which culminated with her son, Reggie Clemons, being convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The case is infected by police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, witnesses with motivations to give false testimony, dreadful defense lawyering and blatant racism. Contact Missouri Governor Jay Nixon asking him to grant clemency to Reggie Clemons or appoint an independent Board of Inquiry to examine the case.

Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) delivered a speech at the University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law, during which he discussed the Supreme Court and the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter. During his speech, Sen. Leahy highlighted the Court's imminent decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. One v. Holder (NAMUDNO), expected to be the Court's most significant ruling of the Term and, as Senator Leahy called it, "one of its most important decisions in years."

If you're interested in issues related to nuclear weapons, President Obama delivered a very intriguing speech in Prague this weekend. It's very encouraging to see a serious issue like nuclear weapons given prime placement on Obama's first European tour as president. He sets a high bar, and does it in front of a foreign audience. But, the speech also carries many of the legacy positions of fear-mongering to support unnecessary programs and delay in bringing about speedy changes in policy that have characterized several decades of the American nuclear experience.

When you were elected to the U.S. Senate, you swore a solemn oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion." Do we need to review what that means? Very well -- let's review. "Allegiance" is defined as loyal and obedient servitude. The mission of our government, defined by the Constitution, is to establish justice and to promote the general welfare. This is what you've sworn to serve, loyally and obediently, without reservation or evasion. Whatever your politics, this is the side you're on, or you are not as good as your word. Now, let's talk about justice. Let's talk about the general welfare. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of

Last week, I had the honor of meeting a proud graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Lt. Dan Choi. Lt. Choi has served honorably in the 1st Bn., 69th Infantry of the New York Army National Guard, including a deployment in Iraq. Now, it appears his service may come to an end simply because he has publicly said these three words: "I am gay."

Barack Obama met the AMA last Monday at its annual meeting in Chicago. He received everything from applause to boos to cautious comments of support afterward. But in a time where its membership is at best only 20-30% of American doctors, does the AMA really matter?

There is a plague of venomous snakes in southern Iraq. Patrick Cockburn reports: "We have been surprised in recent days by the unprecedented number of snakes that have fled their habitat because of the dryness and heat," Wissam al-Assadi, one of the town's vets said. "We saw some on roads, near houses and cowsheds. Farmers have come to us for vaccines, but we don't have any." The plague of snakes is the latest result of an unprecedented fall in the level of the water in the Euphrates and the Tigris, the two great rivers which for thousands of years have made life possible in the sun-baked plains of Mesopotamia.

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