MARJORIE COHN Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild. She has written a piece titled “Harriet Miers: Bush’s Pit Bull,” which will be posted on TruthOut.org today. She said: “Bush has nominated his Texas crony as a stealth appointment. Although the Senate will…

WILLIAM ARKIN An intelligence analyst, Arkin writes a blog called Early Warning on the WashingtonPost.com website. He has written extensively on the role of the military during emergencies and recent calls for the curtailment of the Posse Comitatus Act as well as responsibility for the lack of proper governmental action in the aftermath of Hurricane…

CRAIG McDONALD Director of Texans for Public Justice, McDonald said today: “On March 31, 2003, we filed a formal complaint with the Travis County District Attorney requesting an investigation into what appeared to be unlawful uses of corporate funds by Congressman Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) to influence Texas’ 2002 legislative…

A military jury has sentenced Army Pfc. Lynndie England to three years for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. ORLANDO TIZON Tizon is the assistant director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International and a survivor of torture under the Marcos regime in the Philippines. He said today: “Lynndie England was convicted…

PETER IRONS Author of the just-released book War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, Irons said today: “There’s no question that John Roberts is an advocate of virtually unlimited executive power. He has already voted on the circuit court to allow the president to hold alleged enemy combatants indefinitely, for example in Guantanamo.…

CINDY SHEEHAN STEVE CLEGHORN NANCY LESSIN AL ZAPPALA Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in combat, founded “Camp Casey” in Crawford, Texas. Cleghorn and Lessin are with Military Families Speak Out. Zappala’s son Sgt. Sherwood Baker was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die in combat since World War II. They are engaging…

Major protests against the war in Iraq are planned in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The following activists and analysts are available for interviews: Rev. GRAYLAN SCOTT HAGLER Rev. Hagler is national president of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice. He is also senior minister of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington,…

TINA GARNANEZ Currently in Washington, D.C., Garnanez was in the Army for five years and was a medic in Iraq from July to December 2004. She said today: “A lot of us would ask, What are we doing in Iraq? Eventually, my higher-ups would say it’s for oil — to make rich men richer. But…

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their first global meetings after the G-8 Summit in July in Gleneagles, Scotland, where a debt cancellation deal for 18 very poor countries in Africa was announced. NEIL WATKINS DEBAYANI KAR Watkins, national coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network, said today: “The G-8 made a promise…

KEVIN TRENBERTH Head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Trenberth said today: “There is no doubt that environmental changes related to human influences on climate have changed the odds in favor of more intense storms and heavier rainfalls. A reasonable estimate of the effect of global warming on storms,…