With his total intolerance of intolerance, Martin Luther King brought us closer to the ideal of equality that is America's heritage and hope.  Today our nation is facing different tests of our commitment to the values that make our nation great.  But Dr. King's powerful message of justice rings equally true today.  Now we must recommit to finishing his work.

On the third Monday of January, we honor the work of Dr. King - not just in word, but in deed.  Martin Luther King Day is not a holiday, but rather a day of service, in which we are called to carry the work of Dr. King forward with labor of our own.

More than 40 years ago, Martin Luther King came to Washington to say, 'We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.  This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off....Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children.'  It is not enough to keep Dr. King's spirit alive in eulogy.  It is not enough to reflect on his work and ideals.  We must make them our own, with the fierce urgency of now.

At NETWORK we approach the reality of Iraq from the position of faith and friendship.

In faith we embrace Jesus’ call to be peacemakers. We therefore oppose the escalation of combat troops in Iraq. In friendship with Iraqi women whom we have met through a delegation we recently sponsored, we oppose the escalation of troops -- because escalation has already been tried and it has failed. Troop increases in Baghdad in the late summer and early fall of 2006 brought increased violence and death for both Iraqis and U.S. troops. We continue to mourn all of those terrible losses.

In faith, as peacemakers, we call on the President to escalate diplomacy and political negotiations. The only sensible way forward is to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire and political engagement of all interests in Iraq. The President needs to embrace this way as the only viable way of achieving stability in the country and the region. Read more...

President Bush missed his opportunity to truly revise the course of the war in Iraq.

The Arab American Institute is deeply disappointed that the president’s revised strategy – which relies heavily on the weak and ineffective government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki – runs counter to the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, and risks placing both the U.S. and the Middle East region in a precarious situation.

While President Bush incorporated some of the important ISG elements into his revised policy on Iraq, we are troubled by the obvious omission of several key recommendations that would have long-lasting impact on our standing not only in Iraq, but in the Middle East as a whole. Read more...

President Bush announced the escalation of the war in Iraq on Wednesday and signaled the expansion of violent conflict to Iran and Syria. He invoked the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report but he rejected the report’s main strategic recommendation of a new diplomatic initiative involving all of Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran and Syria. Instead, he announced what amounts to a regional strategy of heightened confrontation. As if to underscore his words, U.S. forces attacked the Iranian consulate in Irbil in the Kurdish area of Iraq two hours before the president spoke. Read more...

With robust growth in medical technology it is beyond my grasp why we would ask the government to be making the decisions about what drugs a senior should have access to rather then promoting consumer choice.  This is simply another attempt by the Democrats to move America towards socialized medicine by asserting control over which drugs are available and at what price.  The current program, which encourages companies to compete for Medicare clients based on price and service, has proved to be far more effective in controlling prices and raising quality than even the most optimistic Republicans and think tanks predicted.

First of all, the purpose of the stem cell bill is to expand the use of embryonic stem cell research and NIH-funded research in the United States. There's a great demand for cures and therapies for serious ailments, particularly Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and diabetes. The public is demanding every opportunity for scientists to find these cures and therapies.

A secondary reason in addition to the human side is the medical economic side. Many of these illnesses cause Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies to pay out billions and billions of dollars.

These are some of the justifications. Read more...

All Americans are struggling with the ever-increasing costs of health care, but seniors have been especially hard hit. I have fought for this change in Medicare since I was first elected, so I’m very happy that we were able to pass this bill today that will help seniors get more affordable health care.

Medicare beneficiaries were done a disservice when the Medicare Prescription Drug bill passed with a provision that prohibited the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers. Today we fixed that.

Negotiating for better prescription drug prices is a long overdue step toward making health care more affordable for Medicare beneficiaries. I am proud to have helped pass this bipartisan legislation and I look forward to continuing to work for better and more affordable health care for our seniors.

The American Legion has long stood in support of the Commander-in-Chief and the men and women of the Armed Forces as they are engaged in the global war on terrorism, and we support the new initiatives in Iraq which include deploying more troops and implementing a well-defined mission.  The six fundamental elements of this new strategy have a good chance of providing the security environment and framework in Iraq - particularly in Baghdad and Anbar Province - to make both military and political progress.  The American Legion remains dedicated to doing everything in our power to make sure the troops have what they need to get the job done once and for all including funding this troop surge so these brave men and women can do their jobs and return home safely.  We do not separate the war from the warrior.  Debating the new strategy is the American Way, but let this be a warning that precipitous actions by the Congress could lower troop morale and hinder the mission.  We remain confident that with the support of the populace at home, our men and women in uniform will continue to aid the growth of democracy and freedom in Iraq.

On Wednesday night, President Bush told the American people that he bore the responsibility for the many mistakes made in the prosecution of the war in Iraq. Then he announced that he planned to make yet another one -- he plans to escalate and extend the Iraq war. The President says he intends to send more than twenty thousand U.S. servicemen and women into Iraq, indefinitely. As has been the case with so many military, strategic and diplomatic decisions made by this President regarding Iraq, this too would be a terrible error.

This open-ended commitment of more U.S troops will result in the death and wounding of thousands more American soldiers, cost U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars more, and do nothing to help the Iraqi people resolve their civil war. In fact, this escalation will "turn up the heat" on the already boiling anti-American fanaticism in Iraq and the region. The President's plan also weakens our severely overstretched and depleted military and limits our ability to face the current and future threats to our country. In summary, President Bush's escalation of the Iraq war will hurt America's national security and I will do everything in my power to stop it.