Rumsfeld Sued for Alleged War Crimes

Alleging responsibility for war crimes and torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, a human rights group has filed a criminal complaint in Germany against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials.

Stem cells help paralysed woman walk - World - www.smh.com.au

"Seoul: A South Korean woman paralysed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.
Hwang Mi-soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident. Last week she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea researchers announced the results of their stem cell therapy."
Non-embroyonic again. GMB (note: link to Aussie newspaper requires sign in

Stem cell treatment successes: Incontinence in women

"For this particular study, the authors removed stem cells from the arms of 20 females, aged 36 to 84, who were experiencing stress incontinence. The stem cells were cultured, producing tens of millions of new cells, then injected into the wall of the urethra and into the sphincter muscle."
In the argument about lines of stem cells, one has to note that these stem cells were not embroyonic, but harvested from the mature client. GMB

Giving Thanks

The New Iron Curtain (washingtonpost.com)

"It can't be a coincidence that if the Ukrainian election is settled in Moscow's favor, it will mark the third such dubious vote in Russia's "sphere of influence" in the past two months, following the polls in Belarus and the separatist province of Abkhazia, not counting the irregularities that were belatedly uncovered in the election of Putin himself."
Putin: this is the guy Bush really took a shine to. Russia benefits hugely from oil at $50 a barrel. And our election is about equal treatment for gays under the law and a woman's right have a choice on bearing a child, oh yeah, and freedom from terror by "liberating" another county: and we voted wrong on all counts.

Find the Opinion Masquerading as Journalism

Here’s the lead from a NYTimes.com AP article entitled G.O.P. Candidate Leads Recount for Governor of Washington. I find the AP to be filled with opinion. Can you find the opinion masquerading as information in this paragraph?

Republican Dino Rossi came out ahead in the recount for Washington governor Wednesday by just 42 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast, and the Democrats are expected to demand yet another recount that could drag on past Christmas.

Be a clown, be a clown...

In the "I can't believe what I'm reading" catagory... Or more like, "There is humor in the news" catagory...

U.S. Rejects Ukraine Election Results

Powell Says Election Does Not Meet International Standards

Paranoia Runs Deep

The American Family Association is now convinced that Shark Tale, the animated DreamWorks sequel to "Finding Nemo" is really providing "an undercurrent of approval for homosexuality". Their reasoning is pretty weak. Any movie that has a theme of accepting other's differences could qualify as pro-homosexual propoganda using their reasoning. How can intelligent people focus their efforts in this way???

The More Things Change...

What might be the danger to the U.S. Economy of a shift in the valuation of the Chinese currency? Since China is a major supporter of our debt habit, it might not be too pretty.

What is the solution? Well it may well be... Revamping the tax code (or, more to the point, a tax overhaul to support saving and suppress spending) BUT, you suppress spending and you've got yourself a recession.

First-Class Stamp May Cost 41 Cents

WASHINGTON - It may soon cost more to mail a letter. A published report says the U.S. Postal Service is expected to seek approval for an increase in postage rates of at least ten percent early next year.

[more...]

Weekly Review (Harpers.org)

"A new poll showed that nearly one half of the U.S. population believes
that human beings did not evolve, but instead were created by God within the last 10,000 years, while only one third believe that the theory of evolution is accurate."

Bob Hicok: Flight

I've been on this flight. I think everyone who flies has been. I remember how incredibly beautiful it all was, a miracle, as I lean against the bulkhead where 8 inches on the other side is 600 mph air, and I am 7 miles over the earth and there is music. Before they made us afraid of the sky. gmb

Flight

I'm in a plane that will not be flown into a building.
It's a SAAB 340, seats 40, has two engines with propellers
is why I think of beanies, those hats that would spin
a young head into the clouds. The plane is red and loud
inside like it must be loud in the heart, red like fire
and fire engines and the woman two seats up and to the right
resembles one of the widows I saw on TV after the Towers
came down. It's her hair that I recognize, the fecundity of it
and the color and its obedience to an ideal, the shape
it was asked several hours ago to hold and has held, a kind
of wave that begins at the forehead and repeats with slight
variations all the way to the tips, as if she were water
and a pebble had been continuously dropped into the mouth
of her existence. We are eighteen thousand feet over America.
People are typing at their laps, blowing across the fog of coffee,
sleeping with their heads on the windows, on the pattern
of green fields and brown fields, streams and gas stations
and swimming pools, blue dots of aquamarine that suggest
we've domesticated the mirage. We had to kill someone,
I believe, when the metal bones burned and the top
fell through the bottom and a cloud made of dust and memos
and skin muscled across Manhattan. I remember feeling
I could finally touch a rifle, that some murders
are an illumination of ethics, that they act as a word,
a motion the brain requires for which there is
no syllable, no breath. The moment the planes had stopped,
when we were afraid of the sky, there was a pause
when we could have been perfectly American,
could have spent infinity dollars and thrown a million
bodies at finding the few, lasering our revenge
into a kind of love, the blood-hunger kept exact
and more convincing for its precision, an expression
of our belief that proximity is never the measure of guilt.
We've lived in the sky again for some years and today
on my lap these pictures from Iraq, naked bodies
stacked into a pyramid of ha-ha and the articles
about broomsticks up the ass and the limbs of children
turned into stubble, we are punch-drunk and getting even
with the sand, with the map, with oil, with ourselves
I think listening to the guys behind me. There's a problem
in Alpena with an inventory control system, some switches
are being counted twice, switches for what I don't know —
switches of humor, of faith — but the men are musical
in their jargon, both likely born in New Delhi
and probably Americans now, which is what the flesh
of this country has been, a grafted pulse, an inventory
of the world, and just as the idea of embrace
moves chemically into my blood, and I'm warmed
as if I've just taken a drink, a voice announces
we've begun our descent, and then I sense the falling.


Bob Hicok
Poetry
Volume 185, Number 2
November

BBC NEWS | Europe | Ukraine's key election 'rigged'

"International observers and the opposition said the first round was a step backwards for democracy in the former Soviet republic of 48 million people, alleging widespread fraud and intimidation."

Well, they don't have 200 years of democracy like we do.

"outrageous and almost literally unbelievable"

From TPM

Some things, like the DeLay Rule, are outrageous but not that surprising.

But what I'm about to describe is outrageous and almost literally unbelievable.

As you've probably heard, the congress is pushing through a big omnibus spending bill this weekend. And at the last minute, Republican leaders tried to slip in a provision that would give certain committee chairman and their staffers unlimited access to any American's tax return, with none of the standard privacy protections applying.

Alan (the Whore) Greenspan Sounds Alarm

"Greenspan again recommended that U.S. policymakers try to cut the record federal budget deficit, which would reduce the government's borrowing needs and effectively increase national saving.
Additionally, he said, 'finding policies that would elevate the personal saving rate from its current extraordinarily low level . . . would also be helpful,' he said."
He can't seem to say anything about taxes... 4 years of complete silence on the subject. In response to a question about "let them eat cake", Alan could only say "I really wish I had said that!"

A message Sen. John Kerry

This from TalkingPointsMemo

"Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted -- and they will be counted -- we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles -- it is a time to stand firm.

I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It's unacceptable in the United States that people still don't have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process.

I ask you to join me in this cause."

That's a passage from a message Sen. John Kerry will be sending out to supporters later this afternoon.

Running 'key to human evolution'

Long-distance running may have been a driving force behind evolution of the modern human body, scientists say.


More from the BBC.

The Continuing Issue of the Vote

Two articles today worthy of reading on the continued controversy of the election and vote counting.

Here

and

Here

America's True Colors

And the cartogram is even better.

America's True Colors

Powell Says Iran Is Pursuing Bomb (washingtonpost.com)

Condaleeza Powell?
"Oh Mr Powell," the children squealed, "tell us about those mobile biological weapons trucks again!" and they all jumped about and clapped their hands.
Alas, the nuclear weapons will be useless: who they gonna bomb, Iraq? shit, we'll be outa there in a flash (so to speak).
On the other hand, they could motivate the French, but lotta good that will do. I mean, nuke the French? How bad would Bush feel about that?
Nah, they have to nuke somebody who hasn't got nukes and who is a "friend" (ie, bought) by the US: Iraq, Kuwait.

Cheney and Edwards to wed

In a surprised move of bi-patisanship, but with overtones that the GOP will be courting the gay vote, Dick Cheney blushingly accepted the offer of marriage from John Edwards. This is complicated by the fact that both men are currently married has raised some eyebrows, but both wives seem to be accepting.

Greenspan:bait and switch (that's polite speak for "stealing")

From the "why-do-we-tolerate-this-shit" dept.
And the "candidates-for-export-to-another-planet" dept

Greenspan pushed through an increase in taxes on working Americans, generating a Social Security surplus.
Then he used that surplus to argue for tax cuts that deliver very little relief to most people but are worth a lot to those making more than $300,000 a year. And now that those tax cuts have contributed to a soaring deficit, he wants to cut Social Security benefits.

Social security is in trouble in the same sense that, say, a swimmer would be if the swimming area were stocked with sharks.

Powell's Flawed Exit Strategy (washingtonpost.com) Cohen

"Colin Powell came into office with enormous public support and popularity. The tragedy is that he left pretty much the same way. He should have used his immense standing to oppose a war he knew was unwise and was being fought in ways he knew were wrong. He was, paradoxically, in violation of his own doctrine: caught in a quagmire and with no exit strategy."
It seems that popularity, not meritocracy, rules the day. WTF, he was an nice guy. Not at al different from the way the corporations get run. Oilgarchy, nepotism, or just plain incest.

Feel the Pull

Of World War III

"These Germans, these atheists, these Europeans don't shave under their arms and their sweat collects under their hair with a revolting smell and they stink," said the preacher at the Mevlana Mosque in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, in the film made by Germany's ZDF public TV, adding: "Hell lives for the infidels! Down with all democracies and all democrats!"

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Heroes of our Times: The resignations in the CIA

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday that Goss and some White House officials were concerned that unauthorized disclosures of information by the CIA during the election campaign 'were intended to damage the president,' and he accused a 'rogue' element within the agency of carrying them out."
That's strike two, John. No balls.
The two resignations yesterday, of Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes and his deputy, Michael Sulick, will "undermine the morale of the workforce that had undergone a renaissance since the failures of 9/11," she said.
Funny, these me were highly regarded by all. They put their lives on the line, and they deserve ourthanks

PNAC vs. Wingnuts

Powell resigning should be a surprise to no one (Powell has been an outsider in this administration since day one.) since it was widely reported some 8 months before the election that he had decided he would step down after the election. Thus it will come as no surprise to me that many people will be surprised by this announcement.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of Rumsfeld. There was rumor of his stepping down after the election but I’m not sure I buy it. The Donster is part of the inner circle of real power (Project for a New American Century (PNAC)) behind this administration. If the Donster were to step down this could be an indication of a power struggle of even a power shift within the administration between the PNAC people (America as new Roman Empire) and the Wingnuts (religious right). The resignation of well known Wingnut, John Ashcroft, does not signal part of this struggle since Bush turned against Ashcroft for his being to publicity hungry.

So the interesting political watching out of Washington will be The PNAC camp (in which sits Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Jeb Bush) vs. the Wingnut camp (in which sits some members of the Supreme Court, some powerful members of Congress and possibly the President.) (Where does Rove fit in? I don’t know.) The Grand Inquisitor Dobson and his ilk will be putting a mighty amount of pressure on those in Washington to make things go their way since they see the election as having been delivered by them.

It is hard to know who to root for here. The arrogance of the PNAC people is grating but the level of destruction to some very precious and vital institutions that could happen with a Wingnut take over is terrifying. So let’s hope for a positive outcome in Iraq, not just for the soldier/pawns that are there, but for the PNACers who might come out favorably for it.

Safer

I feel better knowing that Bush was elected because with Bush we're safer...

Deputy Chief Resigns From CIA

Agency Is Said to Be in Turmoil Under New Director Goss

2 quotes from Bill Moyers's NOW 11/12/2004

"Pro birth is not pro life."
Sister Joan D. Chittister, author, writer for the National Catholic Reporter

"Today the church is no longer a religion but a tacky political lobby..."
Michael Feinberg, Village Voice, 11/10/2004

Keepers.

Sorry Everybody

Make sure to look at some of the later photos...

Congratulatory letter to President George W. Bush from Dr. Bob Jones III

Divisive words from a another supposed religious leader meddling in poltics and claiming to have vision. The agenda of paganism? Liberals despise Christ? Legislation defined by biblical norm? These are insults to our American democracy. I say TO HELL with this man, the others like him, and anyone lacking the common decency to reject their ideology of hate.

November 3, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years—a brief time only—to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour” (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you—that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones III
President

BJIII:lw

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.

On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.

Not so Unusual

The New York Times has a good piece on the whole "stolen election" thing today. It's worth the read. It is a little better than the "conspiracy nuts" piece in yesterday's Washington Post (lost link but here is an interesting Post article from today). What neither the Times nor the Post really address is THE issue to come out of this whole thing: it's time for a more reliable, easy to use, easy to track, hard copy electoral system so that we don't have to have this sort of theory spring up in every election.

MoveOn.org: Investigate the Vote

The reason to investigate the election is not to determine if Kerry could possibly have won. The point is to document and publicize the problems and pitfalls affecting the current electronic voting systems in order to improve the validity, reliability, and public confidence in future elections.

Tell Congress to Investigate the 2004 Election

Running Headlong into the 13th Century

This from Talking Points Memo on a statement from one of our nations newly recognized moral authorities (newly recognized due to the overwhelming landslide of the President after he ran his campaign on the question of our nation's moral decay): Jame Dobson of Focus on the Family. Or, as said on TPM, Mullah Dobson.

“Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage,” Dobson said.

“It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

Guerilla Marketing

Wow, who'd a thunk.

Is this the future of marketing? The present of marketing? This is what an internet AD is. This IS the internet turned advertisement. Will this be how we select our future president in 8 to 12 years?

Liberal Christians Challenge 'Values Vote' (washingtonpost.com)

Liberal scmiberal: what we need, and what I would lay claim to be: a kick ass moderate.

For all the talk

For all my talk of reaching out to the Bush crowd I just could not deny posting this web site. It's great.

[...]

Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.

All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.

The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

[more]

a word to the wise

A good thing to remember on this blog and any other.

At 9:45 last night, the Secret Service showed up on my mother's front door...

The Red and Blue of It

Many people look at a map like this one and decide that Bush blew Kerry out of the water...

The problem with this analysis is that we do not elect presidents based on the area of a state but on a state's population. How the voted was apportioned according to population can be more easily seen using a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states have been rescaled according to their population.

You can also do this by breaking down the vote by county. Apparently USA Today used this map to say that the Republican's had wide support.



But when you use a cartogram to skew the size of counties according to their population the degree of support for Bush is put into better perspective.

The Story Seeps into the Mainstream

Keith Olbermann reports on continuing controversy about the presidential vote in Ohio.

• VIDEO

Check out his blog too.

I'm still on the fence, but the fence seems a bit wobbly.

And now, the official vote, please

"there is a small but blood-curdling set of news stories that right now exists somewhere between the world of investigative journalism, and the world of the Reynolds Wrap Hat. And while the group's ultimate home remains unclear - so might our election of just a week ago."

"...the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that officials in Warren County, Ohio, had “locked down” its administration building to prevent anybody from observing the vote count there.
Suspicious enough on the face of it, the decision got more dubious still when County Commissioners confirmed that they were acting on the advice of their Emergency Services Director, Frank Young. Mr. Young had explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security."

Signal Begins to Emerge from the Noise

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

How could this happen?

On the CNBC TV show "Topic A With Tina Brown," several months ago, Howard Dean had filled in for Tina Brown as guest host. His guest was Bev Harris, the Seattle grandmother who started www.blackboxvoting.org from her living room. Bev pointed out that regardless of how votes were tabulated (other than hand counts, only done in odd places like small towns in Vermont), the real "counting" is done by computers. Be they Diebold Opti-Scan machines, which read paper ballots filled in by pencil or ink in the voter's hand, or the scanners that read punch cards, or the machines that simply record a touch of the screen, in all cases the final tally is sent to a "central tabulator" machine.

That central tabulator computer is a Windows-based PC.

"In a voting system," Harris explained to Dean on national television, "you have all the different voting machines at all the different polling places, sometimes, as in a county like mine, there's a thousand polling places in a single county. All those machines feed into the one machine so it can add up all the votes. So, of course, if you were going to do something you shouldn't to a voting machine, would it be more convenient to do it to each of the 4000 machines, or just come in here and deal with all of them at once?"

Dean nodded in rhetorical agreement, and Harris continued. "What surprises people is that the central tabulator is just a PC, like what you and I use. It's just a regular computer."

"So," Dean said, "anybody who can hack into a PC can hack into a central tabulator?"

Harris nodded affirmation, and pointed out how Diebold uses a program called GEMS, which fills the screen of the PC and effectively turns it into the central tabulator system. "This is the official program that the County Supervisor sees," she said, pointing to a PC that was sitting between them loaded with Diebold's software.

Bev then had Dean open the GEMS program to see the results of a test election. They went to the screen titled "Election Summary Report" and waited a moment while the PC "adds up all the votes from all the various precincts," and then saw that in this faux election Howard Dean had 1000 votes, Lex Luthor had 500, and Tiger Woods had none. Dean was winning.

"Of course, you can't tamper with this software," Harris noted. Diebold wrote a pretty good program.

But, it's running on a Windows PC.

So Harris had Dean close the Diebold GEMS software, go back to the normal Windows PC desktop, click on the "My Computer" icon, choose "Local Disk C:," open the folder titled GEMS, and open the sub-folder "LocalDB" which, Harris noted, "stands for local database, that's where they keep the votes." Harris then had Dean double-click on a file in that folder titled "Central Tabulator Votes," which caused the PC to open the vote count in a database program like Excel.

In the "Sum of the Candidates" row of numbers, she found that in one precinct Dean had received 800 votes and Lex Luthor had gotten 400.

"Let's just flip those," Harris said, as Dean cut and pasted the numbers from one cell into the other. "And," she added magnanimously, "let's give 100 votes to Tiger."

They closed the database, went back into the official GEMS software "the legitimate way, you're the county supervisor and you're checking on the progress of your election."

As the screen displayed the official voter tabulation, Harris said, "And you can see now that Howard Dean has only 500 votes, Lex Luthor has 900, and Tiger Woods has 100." Dean, the winner, was now the loser.

Harris sat up a bit straighter, smiled, and said, "We just edited an election, and it took us 90 seconds."

On live national television. (You can see the clip on www.votergate.tv)

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

I have no doubt that votes were stolen.
So what.
"It ain't over 'till it's over"? Well, it's over.

Shored Up for Disaster, Area Officials Still Fearful (washingtonpost.com)

There is no boogey man.
No anthrax attacks. Missing missles and weapons and no attacks, no hiijack attempts, no suicide bombers... these are justifications for the dispensation of largess through the government. First you create the fears, then you take the money,then you make the fears go away.
People don't have to have bad intentions to do bad things. But it is still very very poor government.
The only difference between a population of good and productive people every thing else less desireable is the quality of the government.

House Judiciary Committee letter to GAO regarding voting machines

From Democratic Underground

November 5, 2004

The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. General Accountability Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write with an urgent request that the Government Accountability Office immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.

In particular, we are extremely troubled by the following reports, which we would also request that you review and evaluate for us:

In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Associated Press, November 5.

An electronic tally of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes. "South Florida OKs Slot Machines Proposal," Id.

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots could hold more data that it did. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Id.

In San Francisco, a glitch occurred with voting machines software that resulted in some votes being left uncounted. Id.

In Florida, there was a substantial drop off in Democratic votes in proportion to voter registration in counties utilizing optical scan machines that was apparently not present in counties using other mechanisms. http://ustogether.org/election04/florida_vote_patt.htm

The House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff has received numerous reports from Youngstown, Ohio that voters who attempted to cast a vote for John Kerry on electronic voting machines saw that their votes were instead recorded as votes for George W. Bush. In South Florida, Congressman Wexler's staff received numerous reports from voters in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties that they attempted to select John Kerry but George Bush appeared on the screen. CNN has reported that a dozen voters in six states, particularly Democrats in Florida, reported similar problems. This was among over one thousand such problems reported. "Touchscreen Voting Problems Reported," Associated Press, November 5.

Excessively long lines were a frequent problem throughout the nation in Democratic precincts, particularly in Florida and Ohio. In one Ohio voting precinct serving students from Kenyon College, some voters were required to wait more than eight hours to vote. "All Eyes on Ohio," Dan Lothian, CNN, November 3, http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/1...blog/index... ..

We are literally receiving additional reports every minute and will transmit additional information as it comes available. The essence of democracy is the confidence of the electorate in the accuracy of voting methods and the fairness of voting procedures. In 2000, that confidence suffered terribly, and we fear that such a blow to our democracy may have occurred in 2004.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this inquiry.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr. / Jerrold Nadler / Robert Wexler
Ranking Member / Ranking Member / Member of Congress
House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner
Chairman

Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides (washingtonpost.com)

Missing weapons redux.
Deja vu all over again? The press let stand the acrimony directed toward the inspectors. Now there is an army there, and, well, shit happens.
But missles don't kill people, people do.
BTW, there are no missles. If there were, they would have been used at least as bargaining chips: put the word out that say, 10 are out there, and there are HUGE expenses to equip all the commercial craft in the world.
Nah. The are no missles.
This is, unfortunately, dangerous logic: coals to Newcastle, but it undermines the whole rationale for the invasion. Note, also: no anthrax in the mail. We were seriously and easily had.

Breaking up is hard to do? NOT.

Q1: What are the normal reactions of the body while quitting smoking?
A. The normal reactions are:
• difficulty in concentrating
• dizziness (because the brain needs to get used to having more oxygen)
• cough and runny nose (as the lungs get rid of all the toxins collected inside during smoking)
• strong craving for cigarettes for about two weeks (while the body gets rid of the nicotine)
• tingling sensations in the arms and legs (as blood circulation returns to normal)

However, not every smoker trying to quit will experience these reactions. A smoker who experiences these symptoms should not lose heart as they will usually disappear within one or two weeks.

---

Everything is hard to do absent the character to do it. Anybody who can't quit smoking? Bah. (Try giving up sex.)
What is lacking is the real understanding of what is going to happen. The pain, the cancer, the destruction and cost to your family and friends, and the $ cost to society. Drive that home.
Probably just as easy, maybe more so: advertising that shows smoking as disgusting. "Involuntary" signs of disgust, as opposed to long winded lectures on disgust would be communicated much more easily. A cough one tries to suppress out of politeness. A quick ending of a conversation. Making a polite detour around a smoker.
"Oh, I don't mean to offend you by moving away. It's just that I find smoking to be disgusting, and I can't help it. I'm really sorry."

This morning's sky in Boulder CO. 

Kerry Won. . .

By Greg Palast via TomPaine.com

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. [To read about the skewing of exit polls to conform to official results, click here .] Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

[more]

My First Move To Take Back America

Moderate Republicans want to take back their party from the extreme fringe that has a grip on it. But they are ineffective. It's time we help them.

Next week I will register as a Republican to stop the religious right (which BTW, is neither) from turning the country into a theocracy. I will vote for the most liberal person in the primary and then, most likely, vote Democratic in the general election.

What do you think?

D.C. Guard Jet Fires, Hitting N.J. School (washingtonpost.com)

"The key is, it was inadvertent," O'Brien said. "It was not directed at the school."

My bad.

On the Good News Front

October Job Growth Stronger Than Expected
but
Unemployment Rate Rises Slightly

Evoting Fraud?

I had avoided posting this because I really didn't know how true it was. Some part of me thought this is some cognitive dissonance on the left, but after talking to a friend in New Mexico this morning who worked as a poll worker and hearing her story I feel this might really be an issue.

First my friend’s story. She worked at a polling place with several precincts and around 10 or so paperless evoting machines. All the precincts are in a substantially democratic area. At the end of the day they print a tally from each of the machines of the vote. What they found was that for 9 out of 10 machines the vote was something like Bush: 35% Kerry: 65%. But there was one machine that gave Bush 49% and Kerry 51%. First, for those who know a little bit about probability and statistics, this result is quite unlikely, particularly when you consider that there were as many votes on the one machine versus the others.

But that's not all... (Think Ginsu Knife Commercial! :) )

In New Mexico they allow you to check a single box to vote straight party line (that's not allowed in Colorado). What they found was that when people checked this box of the evoting machine for the Democrats the presidential vote would go to Bush. Let me repeat, I talked to my friend this morning and she told me this unequivocally. When people pressed vote all Democratic (on ANY evote machine) Bush would be their selected presidential vote. What she found was that they would need to press this button FOUR TIMES before Kerry would be selected as their choice for President.

So in that light let's start investigating evoting fraud in this past election (Remember, keep an open mind about it folks). We might not be able to change the outcome nor the fake mandate (narrowest margin of victory for a sitting president since 1916) but we can record this crime, if it is true, for a future Truth and Reconciliations Committee.

Telling it like it is... no classical humbug spoken here!

VICTORY 2004: President's Acceptance Speech Inviting the 55 Million America-Haters Who Voted Against God to Bend Over and Take It Like a Prison Bitch ...

E-voting and Fraud Potential

E-voting is an issue that needs to be addressed if we are going to trust our electoral process. As of right now some large percent of the vote is recorded by electronic ballot. The problem stems from the fact that there is no physical "real world representation" (e.g. Paper ballot) of your vote that you can verify before entering your vote. Such a thing is also verifiable by multiple parties if there is a need for a recount. As it stands now e-voters enter their vote into a blackbox and have to trust on faith that their votes are being counter properly.

Point one is that one should never have to trust the electoral process; it should be verifiable. Point two is that there is good reason not to trust the company that built and maintains the software for the machines. That reason is security of the vote (this is ignoring the fact that the company's CEO said he would "do what it takes to get W elected" which is troubling enough).

From "liberated" Diebold emails:

Jennifer Price at Metamor (about to be Ciber) has indicated that she can access the GEMS Access database and alter the Audit log without entering a password. What is the position of our development staff on this issue? Can we justify this? Or should this be anathema?

Its a tough question, and it has a lot to do with perception. Of course everyone knows perception is reality. Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't anything new. In VTS, you can open the database with progress and do the same. The same would go for anyone else's system using whatever database they are using. Hard drives are read-write entities. You can change their contents.
...
etc

This should quite obviously be a non-partisan issue. We all want clean verifiable elections that people can walk away from and know that their vote counted. We all do not want the rancor and turmoil that can occur if there is even a hint of irregularities as in this election where usually trust worthy exit polls (how international election monitors gauge the fairness of elections) indicated, for the second presidential election in a row, that the eventual loser was winning.

To that end please check out the Verified Voting Foundation. Or to put it in their words...

Our democracy is at stake and the time for action is now! This nationwide grassroots effort to restore the sanctity of our electoral process will succeed only through the efforts of volunteers who are willing to write letters, make telephone calls, visit legislators, and communicate our message to all our fellow Americans.

Stand and Fight

One thing we can say for certain at this point, after the grieving, the anger, is that the country is still bitterly divided.

[more]

Fah who for-aze!

Do not let the right-wing and main stream media define the meaning of this election. Bush was a standing war president. And though it seemed obvious to us that this man is not up for the job, that he is corrupt, and that he’d rather divide the nation during this period of national emergency so as to win instead of uniting us, the (slim) majority of Americans who voted, it seems, would rather not “change horses mid-stream” during this emergency. That a charismatic president was this close to defeat, in spite of the war and acts of terror, is nothing to scoff at. We almost won. And the pro-democracy, pro-social order, pro-everyday person side has gotten stronger. The aim of the extreme right in the next few days/weeks/months/years will be to dismantle this new energy with psychological defeatism. Do not fall for it. What we did was impressive.

We have two years until the next congressional elections where all 435 house members and 1/3 of the senate come up for re-election. If there is one thing that I learned from my last five days of volunteer work, the next election will not be won by waiting until the last five days. We need to start working NOW.

I will maintain my involvement with Dean’s Democracy for America organization as well as the New Democratic Network and the local party chapter. I ask that you do likewise. Also I have already picked my issue of particular involvement, electronic voting. To me paperless e-voting is so filled with the possibility of corruption and cheating that we need to make it illegal. I will search the net for organizations that are taking on this issue.

Lastly, I must reiterate, for me this election was not the end but the beginning. I’ve NEVER seen the level of involvement in the political process and I’ve never had so much fun as I have the last five days. I ask that you too join me in preparing for 2006.

In parting, this morning I was reminded of one of my favorite Christmas specials, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. What I was reminded of was the scene near the end after the Grinch had stolen all the toys, the food, and the trees of the who’s. The scene when, despite all the loss, all the who’s come out and sing because they did not lose what was really important. We must remember our success yesterday and we need to remember to sing today.

Welcome Christmas (Reprise)

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Come this way!

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Christmas Day.

Welcome, Welcome
Fah who rah-moose
Welcome, Welcome
Dah who dah-moose
Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas
Bring your cheer

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome all Who's
Far and near

Welcome Christmas, fah who rah-moose
Welcome Christmas, dah who dah-moose
Christmas day will always be
Just so long as we have we

Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome Christmas
Bring your light
(Bridge (about 65 sec))

Welcome Christmas
Fah who rah-moose!
Welcome Christmas
Dah who dah-moose!

Welcome Christmas
While we stand
Heart to heart
And hand in hand

Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome welcome
Christmas
Christmas
Day

OHIO

Get's closer!!!

From KOS

The networks have essentially called this one for Bush. There are still
votes to be counted, and Kerry better not get it in his head to concede before
all of them are counted.
The networks won't decide this election as they did
in 2000.

Once the votes are counted, and the final result is determined, then we can
talk about what we need to do.

I've always said today was merely a battle in a long war. The GOP built its
electoral dominance over 40 years by building a massive, well-funded message,
training, and media machine.
We started putting ours together last year.

You all have much to be proud of. But please don't think your job is done,
or that your hard work was all for naught. It's not, and it wasn't.

This is just the beginning, not the end. Regardless of who takes that oath
next January we still have a war to wage. We won't wage it with violence, but by
building a solid foundation for a new progressive movement.

Not Looking Good

The good news is that all change starts with the minority. ALWAYS.

Reality has a nasty way of creeping in. It may well coach itself in Republican clothing (I really don't care if it does) but reality better visit them/us soon or we be in some deep doo doo.

Aljazeera.Net - Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech

Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech
by Osama Bin Ladin?

Saturday 30 October 2004 11:28 AM GMT


Bin Ladin directed his message at the American people

Following is the full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape sent to Aljazeera. In the interests of authenticity, the content of the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.


Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:

Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results.

Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom.

If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example - Sweden? And we know that freedom-haters don't possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 - may Allah have mercy on them.

No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.

No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again.

But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.

So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider.

I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced.

I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy.

The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn't respond.

In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.

And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.

This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of millions as Bush Sr did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter of children mankind has ever known, and it means the throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives at millions of children - also in Iraq - as Bush Jr did, in order to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages.

So with these images and their like as their background, the events of September 11th came as a reply to those great wrongs, should a man be blamed for defending his sanctuary?

Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us.

This is the message which I sought to communicate to you in word and deed, repeatedly, for years before September 11th.

And you can read this, if you wish, in my interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998.

You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my interviews with Robert Fisk.

The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders of freedom at the White House and the channels controlled by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may relay to the American people what he has understood from us to be the reasons for our fight against you?

If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the correct path that will lead America to the security that it was in before September 11th. This concerned the causes of the war.

As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah, positive and enormous, and have, by all standards, exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors, chief among them, that we have found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

Our experience with them is lengthy, and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Sr to the region.

At a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries, all of a sudden he was affected by those monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of their remaining decades in their positions, to embezzle the public wealth of the nation without supervision or accounting.

So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretence of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.

All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.

That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.

Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.

And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.

And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest estimate - more than $500 billion.

Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.

As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.

And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan - with Allah's permission.

It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced. And it all shows that the real loser is ... you.

It is the American people and their economy. And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.

It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him.

But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah.

And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told him: "All that you want for securing America and removing the weapons of mass destruction - assuming they exist - is available to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections, and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an unjustified war with an unknown outcome."

But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.

So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future. He fits the saying "like the naughty she-goat who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth".

So I say to you, over 15,000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business.

Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting the powerful one get off, when he causes the killing of more than 1000 of its sons, also for money.

And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorise the women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for every action, there is a reaction.

Finally, it behoves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in despair. They are important testaments, which should be studied and researched.

Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose in their gestures before the collapse, where they say: "How mistaken we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive foreign policies against the weak without supervision."

It is as if they were telling you, the people of America: "Hold to account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he who learns from others' mistakes."

And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry. "Injustice chases its people, and how unhealthy the bed of tyranny."

As has been said: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."

And know that: "It is better to return to the truth than persist in error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.

In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida. No.

Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security.

And Allah is our Guardian and Helper, while you have no Guardian or Helper. All peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.

-Osama?

Bin Laden aims to bankrupt United States - (United Press International)

My point exactly.
It is analgous to an over reactive immune system.
Bush took the bait. Still, hard to see that funding Haliburton et al bankrupts the US, not to mention that it seems at least a little silly that this was Bin Ladens long range "plan". On the other hand, we are used to George Bush style planning (24 hours? it that enough?)

From the Ground in Colorado

Matt and I ran around today placing "Go Vote You Twit" signs (OK, that’s not what it said. It really said something about their mothers.) on the doors of people expressing interest in Kerry but might need some persuading to get to the polls.

Nice cool day with snow on the ground from last night.

Tomorrow more GOTV work and maybe some action at the polls. Not sure if I'll be able to write anything on the blog.

Ken

Signs of the Times

Blog Bits: A Kerry landlside?

Just maybe.

R.I.P. MOVEMENT CONSERVATISM, 1964-2004

The objective of Boss Rove is to do unto the nation what he and Delay have done into Texas - destroy the Democratic Party and its institutions.

The Man in the Arena - April 23, 1910 - Theodore Roosevelt Speeches-

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

---

This is just a part of his speech! There is more!