Helping To Stop The Hunger Crisis aka The Boys & Girls At The ONE Campaign Must Sleep Pretty Damn Well At Night (UPDATED)

The ONE Campaign is at it again, this time focusing on the current hunger crisis.

They are petitioning President Bush to urge action by the G8 countries to help ease the crisis. From their petition:

President Bush,

The soaring cost of staple foods and the resulting hunger crisis has caused riots from Haiti to Bangladesh, threatens hundreds of thousands of people with starvation and could push one hundred million more people deeper into poverty. Please build on your recent commitment by taking immediate action to:

1. Prioritize issues of global poverty, including the world hunger crisis, on the agenda of the G8 Summit this July in Japan.

2. At the summit, secure commitments for additional resources for all types of food assistance and increased agricultural productivity in developing countries.

Now, as we've stated before, we're agnostic on the practical political value of petitions, even one that will get tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of signatures as ONE's routinely do.

But, petitions certainly can't hurt.

And, if you couple a petition with well-connected White House/Congressional lobbyists and a smart local ground game to twist the arm of any elected official hold-outs (via local ed boards, air cover, mail etc) well, you're off to the races.

And it doesn't hurt when you're on the side of angles, as our friends down at ONE are.

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(UPDATED) A reader writes to point out the success that ONE had moving the IMF ahead with debt relief for Liberia. ONE's secret? A simple email campaign.

Maybe we won't stay agnostic for long.