In a diary back in February, FishOutofWater wrote of the beginning of what would come to be known in Australia as the Black Saturday Bushfires.

Australia Fires Kill 128

Twenty-five people are confirmed to have died in fires north of Melbourne and this morning there are unconfirmed reports of bodies being found in cars overtaken by the fires in Gippsland in the state's east.

This morning Mr Brumby said 26 fires were still burning and up to a dozen of them are still very serious.

"Every effort is being thrown at the fires," he said.

"This is not over yet. Tragically I think there will be more bad news.

By the time the smoke had cleared, 173 people had perished in these fires. Two days ago I went to see some of the first responders, firefighters and police, who are currently sacrificing once again to raise funds for a good cause.

Back in February of this year in Victoria, Australia we had terrible heat waves taking the lives of many people, over taken in the news by the most destructive bushfire, wildfire in terms of lives and property, in Australia's history.

[Reposted with permission from Sibel Edmonds' blog 123 Real Change.]

Seeking Our Iranian Comrades’ Solidarity

Dear Activists in Iran:

We stand in solidarity with you and your movement against the alleged election fraud you’ve claimed. In return we hope you will reciprocate by supporting us in our struggle here in which we’ve been engaged for hmmmm…more or less eight years now – the following is an abbreviated list of our grievances:
 

The community is all a-"twitter" about new ways to promote commentaries. With the help of the Drupal community we are in the midst of integrating Twitter Tools for you to use.

You can set up your Twitter profile in your member account. After you click on edit, you will see the Twitter and Tweeting options.

Please provide feedback.  We have done minor testing and it all seems to be working but would appreciate some feedback from the community.