MANHATTAN, Kan. - On Monday, March 8th President and Michelle Obama celebrated International Women's Day. They were joined by Madeline Albright (the first female US Secretary of State) to mark the progress women have made in the United States and to draw attention to the problems women still face all over the world. Madeline Albright pointed out many struggles women all over the world face and said that while some may claim these are cultural differences and should be left alone, she believes "it is criminal and we each have an obligation to stop it." Michelle Obama pointed out many accomplishments women have made. She also made it clear that this day was not just to honor the famous women who have made history, but the "quiet heroes;" the first women in board rooms, on playing fields and battle fields.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Noted sociologist Gay Seidman will be visiting Kansas State University to deliver the 10th Annual Donald J. Adamchak Distinguished Lecture Monday, March 8th (International Women's Day) at 7 pm in Forum Hall of K-State Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Professor Seidman is the Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, director of their African Studies program, and an internationally recognized expert on global production, labor, and human rights. Her lecture, Citizens, Markets, and Transnational Activism: Can Consumer Boycotts and Independent Monitoring End Sweatshops? builds on her recent book, Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Transnational Activism (Russell Sage, 2007). Professor Seidman has won graduate and undergraduate teaching awards, is a prolific scholar, and has experience as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist.

WICHITA, Kan. - Friends, if you don't think the mainstream media plays a major role in the formulation of American foreign policy, I would politely suggest you are living in denial. If a hayseed from Kansas like me figured out from multiple news sources that the Bush administration was lying about the "Iraqi threat" prior to the invasion in 2003, how could a majority of Americans and Congress members become so thoroughly fooled and panicked that they virtually clamored for America's first-ever "pre-emptive war"?

Today, we know that the Bush administration knowingly issued 935 proven lies prior to the invasion. So, I can only assume that the Bush administration was following the advice of one of the world's most infamous manipulators of public opinion who said, "It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion ... news should be given out for instruction rather than information."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners In Health (PIH) is an international health care organization that has providing vital health care services in Haiti for more than 20 years and is one of the largest health care providers in the country, working with the Haitian Ministry of Health to deliver comprehensive health care services to a catchment area of 1.2 million across the Central Plateau and the Lower Artibonite Valley.

PIH Medical Director Joia Mukherjee has been working around the clock in Haiti since 48 hours after the earthquake. In a late-night email from Port-au-Prince, Dr. Mukherjee reported an inspiring example of lifesaving international collaboration from the night before. The case of a baby suffering from severe blood loss and in shock was discovered by the Haitian nurse who serves as chief administrator at HUEH, who was rounding by flashlight, with two Haitian doctors who had returned from their pediatric residencies in Cuba to help. Dr. Mukherjee described what happened next...

HAYS, Kan. - People in Haiti continue to sleep in the streets, on sidewalks, in their cars, or in makeshift shanty towns either because their houses have been destroyed or because they are afraid. Thousands have died from injuries and lack of attention for their often very serious medical emergencies. Now, hundreds of thousands of the uninjured residents are in risk of dying of thirst, hunger or exposure to unsanitary conditions caused by the disaster. These deaths can be prevented.

If you're looking to give money to help relief activities, here's a good list of some of the larger, established international aid organizations responding to the disaster in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Most of these organizations, like the Salvation Army and Doctors Without Borders, are already on the ground and actively involved in the rescue and relief efforts outside the airport. To our knowledge, these organizations are not ones that are stymied by the log jam we have been hearing about at the Port-au-Prince airport:

• American Red Cross
• American Jewish World Service
• AmeriCares

• CARE
• Catholic Relief Services
• Direct Relief International
• Doctors Without Borders
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• International Rescue Committee
• Mercy Corps
• Oxfam
• Partners in Health
• The Salvation Army
• Save the Children
• UNICEF
• World Food Programme

WICHITA, Kan. - Let's take a look at two alternatives in the so-called war on terror:

1. You arrest a guy, put him on trial, take testimony from the people who saw what he did, get a slam dunk conviction and put him away until the end of time.
2. You put him into the war-on-terror netherworld, disappear him, deny him access to legal representation, and - what the hell - water board him a few times for good measure. It is now impossible to convict him (impossible solely because of what you did to him) but you don't care about that: your intention is to put him away forever without any kind (or with the most circumscribed kind of) trial, and by the time the courts throw out what you did to him you won't be in office anymore and you can blame the people who have to pick up your mess as "soft on terrorism."

HALF MOON CAY, Bahamas - The final seminar of The Nation's 2009 Cruise featured Narda Zacchino, Patricia Williams, Christian Parenti and William Greider discussing the effects the "War on Terror" has had on the United States. Eyal Press moderated the panel.

Given the events that transpired on December 25th with the attempt to blow up Flight 253, the views and opinions share during this panel, have new and more urgent significance for progressives.

Each panelist was given five minutes to present his/her ideas. After each panelist had made their presentation, panelists were allotted an addition two minutes to respond to what had been said or pose questions to each other.

Christian Parenti, a Soros Senior Justice Fellow and a Ford Foundation Fellow at the CUNY Graduate School's Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, has reported from both Iraq and Afghanistan. He opened by looking at terrorism in context of the conflict in Afghanistan.

BASEHOR, Kan. - It's 23:00 hours. Do you know where your American officers are?

We had our farewell dinner with our Indian officer and his family last night. Wednesday morning they're off on their way, back to India. One of the main topics of our dinner was the similarity among people everywhere in the world. The same problems, concerns, annoyances, and daily trials that unite us all as human beings. But a troubling issue we discussed in our meal was this, according to the officer we sponsored: out of the 47 foreign officers in a cohort of 61 for this rotation, all 47 foreign officers joined in to create a Facebook page to commemorate their joint experience. Of the 14 American officers in the cohort, only two joined in the effort. Two.

GRAND TURK, Turks And Caicos Islands - The participants on the 12th Annual Nation Cruise engaged in lively debate on the issue of foreign policy at the second panel seminar on Monday afternoon.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, Robert Scheer, Steven Cohen, William Greider, Howard Dean Members of the panel included: Robert Scheer, a 30-year veteran journalist, Nation columnist and editor of Truthdig.com; Steven Cohen, retired head of the Russian Department at Princeton University; Willian Greider, journalist, Nation columnist, and author of numerous books including The Soul of Capitalism (2003) and Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country (2009); and Howard Dean, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, presidential candidate and six-term Governor of Vermont.

The stage of the MS Eurodam's performance theatre provided the backdrop as Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, set the tone for the panel discussion by saying that "the cost of war can undermine change." While this was a major theme of the Obama campaign, vanden Huevel also reminded the audience that while Obama ran as an anti-Iraq War candidate, he did not run as an anti-war candidate and that is a notable difference.

HAYS, Kan. - According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), some U.S. homes built or remodeled between 2001 and 2008 contain imported drywall, known in the press as Chinese drywall. The defective drywall gives off a toxic sulfuric gas that is thought to corrode metal components in homes and create health and safety problems for residents.

Some consumers who live in these homes have reported health and safety problems, including a strong sulfur smell, like rotten eggs; health issues, like irritated and itchy eyes and skin, difficulty breathing, a persistent cough and headaches; and premature corrosion or deterioration of certain metal components in their homes, like air conditioner coils and wiring behind electrical outlets and inside electrical panel boxes.

To date, the federal government has received 2,276 complaints of defective drywall from homeowners in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. State governments and local authorities have received untold numbers of additional reports. No complaints have yet been verified in Kansas, but the Kansas Department of Health and Environment would like homeowners to notify KDHE if they suspect that Chinese drywall may have been installed anywhere in Kansas.