Now for a Little Perspective...

The American Progress Report today stopped me in my tracks. In a world where we are debating a fake Social Security crisis, whether or not that goofy Jeff/Jim Gannon/Guckert is a hooker or not...and, yes, even whether the Sox can repeat as World Champions of Major League Baseball, this story is truly important.

'The Single Largest Moral Challenge Of Our Time'

An average 320 people die every single day in Sudan. That's about 10,000 people every month. The recent State Department memo on Human Rights found "genocide had been committed in Darfur, and the Government and the Janjaweed bore responsibility." There are daily reports of rapes, mutilations, torture, beatings and murder. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan described the situation last week as "little short of hell on earth." Yet so far, the response from the White House has been shockingly muted and indefensibly passive. Yesterday Congress finally stepped up to fill the leadership vacuum left by the Bush administration. Senators Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced the Darfur Accountability Act, legislation calling for urgently needed action in Sudan. Corzine called the ongoing atrocities in Darfur "probably the single largest moral challenge of our time. It is absolutely essential that we respond to it." Brownback has been equally adamant, saying, "We do not have days or weeks to spare when millions of lives are in jeopardy."

WHAT THE BILL DOES: The Darfur Accountability Act calls for specific and urgently needed actions including: calling for a presidential envoy for Sudan to work with the international community to stop the killings; establishing a military no-fly zone to stop the Sudanese government from bombing civilians; expanding the African Union force; freezing the assets of those responsible for the crimes; extending the arms embargo to Sudan; and calling for new sanctions by the U.N. Security Council.

It's the very least we can do.