Former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson died at his home in Kensington today. Senator Nelson early and ardent supporter of evnironmental causes, calling for a nationwide program to save the national resources of America, saying that, “Our soil, our water, and our air are becoming more polluted every day. Our most priceless natural resources - trees, lakes, rivers, wildlife habitats, scenic landscapes - are being destroyed.”

He successfully lobbied President Kennedy into adopting an environmental program, sponsored the Wilderness Act of 1964, and came up with the idea for Earth Day, which he hoped to model after the teach-ins of the antiwar movement.

He was just one of three United States senators who voted against the $700 million appropriation that began the nation’s expanded involvement in the Vietnam War.

When Mr. Nelson was a boy, his father took him to hear Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, the leader of the Progressive Party, deliver a speech from the back of a train, an event that the future senator said inspired his interest in politics.

Unfortunately the Democratic Party has left him behind. I would like to think that he would be more at home in the Green Party today than with the Democrats.

Rest in Peace, Gaylord Nelson.

Iraq’s U.N. ambassador accused U.S. Marines of killing his unarmed young cousin in what appeared to be “cold blood” and demanded an investigation and punishment for the perpetrators.

In an e-mail to friends obtained Friday by The Associated Press, Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie said the killing took place in his ancestral village in western Anbar province, where U.S.-led forces have been conducting a counterinsurgency sweep aimed at disrupting the flow of foreign militants into Iraq.

His cousin Mohammed Al-Sumaidaie, 21, a university student, was killed June 25 when he took Marines doing house-to-house searches to a bedroom to show them where a rifle which had no live ammuntion was kept, the ambassador said. When the Marines left, he was found in the bedroom with a bullet in his neck.

Sumaidaie said the killing represents “a betrayal” of the values and aspirations of Iraqis and Americans to defeat the terrorists and build a country based on freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

“It is a betrayal of the American people who are making huge sacrifices to bring this about, and a betrayal of Iraq and all Iraqi patriots who have put their trust in the United States,” he said.

Newsworthy you think?

But certain to be burried by the mainstream press.