MY POV

IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin

How Bush really feels about you.

The Mars Society

Satire has never served a better purpose. Go see.
Before they cart us off to the camps.

"...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone...."

Benito Mussolini

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Abraham Lincoln
November 12, 1864

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man."

Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

"CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."

James Madison
(1751-1836)
4th President of the United States

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."

Heinrich Heine
Almansor, 1823

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarschall

"Authoritarian societies inevitably crumble because they silence the critics who could save them from errors of blind hubris. Dissent is not a luxury to be indulged in the best of times, but rather an obligation of free people, particularly when the very notion of dissent is unpopular."

Robert Scheer

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is
neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it
because it is right.

Dr. Martin Luther King

"My life is my message."

Gandhi

Posted: 30 Nov. 2004

And we wonder why our medications cost so much? From the Center for American Progress.

CORPORATE –GOLDEN PARACHUTES OF GREED: Under fire for hiding studies that showed its top medication increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes, the drug giant Merck did what any self-respecting powerful pharmaceutical company would do…it came up with a plan to line the pockets of its top executives with big bonuses if the troubled company is taken over. Facing plunging stock prices, Merck said in a federal securities filing "that its board had decided to give its top 230 managers the opportunity for a one-time payment of up to three years of salary and bonus if another company bought Merck - or merely bought over 20 percent of its shares. Any executive who was fired or resigned for good cause would receive the payment." The company even structured the plan so executives can collect a fat settlement as soon as any company buys just 20 percent of Merck's stock – even if no takeover is completed. "That provision creates the possibility that executives could receive a windfall by leaving even if Merck remained independent, said Nell Minnow, editor of the Corporate Library, an independent research firm specializing in corporate governance." The payout could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

From Grist.

CAP'N CRUNCHY
Earthships offer a model for green housing of the future

Looking to build an eco-friendly dwelling? An "earthship" could be just the ticket, says Mike Reynolds. Inexpensive to construct and even less expensive to run, these houses are built into hillsides, utilizing passive solar design and the thermal properties of the earth to provide natural climate control. Constructed of little but earth, plaster, trash (used tires and discarded building materials), and large windows, the houses first evolved in the arid lands around Taos, N.M., but have now spread as far afield as Fife, U.K. Hallmarks of Reynolds' earthship design are systems that capture and use rainwater, process sewage through plant beds, and generate electricity on site. So far, the designs are only found outside of urban centers, but Reynolds would like to see that change. "If we were to get into a place like Brighton [U.K.], I'd buy an east-west running city block, tear everything down, salvage all the materials and put up a bank of earthships ... People would go apesh*t! Soon other city blocks would be coming down."

straight to the source: The Guardian, Steve Rose, 29 Nov 2004

Posted: 29 Nov. 2004

From Grist.

COMING CLEAN
Green start-ups attracting substantial venture capital

Investor interest in eco-friendly start-ups has taken a leap with the entry of two big venture-capital players into the field. Two California public pension funds -- the largest and third-largest in the U.S. -- recently announced plans to invest a combined $950 million in the clean-technology field in coming years. Beneficiaries of their investment funds include companies developing non-toxic batteries, ocean-wave power systems, water-treatment systems, and other products and services that cut down on energy use and waste. Entrepreneurs moving into clean tech, and the investors trailing in their wake, are not motivated primarily by enviro do-gooderism, according to Bob Epstein of Environmental Entrepreneurs. "It's driven by economics," he says. A new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council supports that viewpoint, predicting that clean-tech companies could create 52,000 to 114,000 well-paying jobs in California over the next six years.

straight to the source: The Sacramento Bee, Gilbert Chan, 29 Nov 2004

This very worthwhile analysis was published on the political blog, dailykos.com.

Terrorist Strategy 101: a quiz
by Pericles

Question 1: What is the first and biggest obstacle between you and victory?

If you answered "People on the other side of my issue," go sit in the corner. That answer is completely wrong. If you assume terrorists think that way, everything they do will seem like total insanity.

The first and biggest obstacle to your victory is that the vast majority of the people who sympathize with your issue are not violent extremists. They may agree with you in principle. They may even sound like violent extremists late at night over their beverage of choice. But when the hammer comes down, they won't be there. There are weeds in the garden and final exams coming up and deadlines at the office. Good luck with that car bombing. Call me next time, maybe things will have settled down by then.

Most people, most of the time, just want to get along. They'll accept a little inconvenience, ignore a few insults, and smile at people they hate if it allows them to get on with their lives. Most people on both sides of your issue just wish the issue would go away. If you're not careful, those apathetic majorities will get together and craft a compromise. And where's your revolution then?

So your first goal as a violent extremist is not to kill your enemies, but to radicalize the apathetic majority on your side of the issue. If everyone becomes a violent extremist, then you (as one of the early violent extremists) are a leader of consequence. Conversely, if a reasonable compromise is worked out, you are a nuisance.

Question 2: In radicalizing your sympathizers, who is your best ally?

READ THE REST.

From The Center for American Progress.

VALUES
The Moral Minority

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Reverend Jerry Falwell reaffirmed the Christian Right's narrow focus on two issues: gay marriage and abortion. Asked by progressive religious leader Jim Wallis to engage in a "broader and deeper" conversation about values, Falwell and fellow conservative preacher Dr. Richard Land resorted to bigotry and misdirection, lashing out against gays, women and religious progressives. Falwell's priorities fly in the face of the "moral values" most often cited (though not most often reported) on Nov. 2, where polls showed voters were more concerned with "greed and materialism" (33 percent) and "poverty and economic justice" (31 percent) than they were with issues like gay marriage (12 percent). Nevertheless, Christian conservatives around the country are following Falwell's lead, dismissing concerns about separation of church and state and setting out to refashion the federal courts around a narrow agenda which conflicts with the values of most Americans.

FALWELL DEMEANS RELIGIOUS PROGRESSIVES: Falwell went out of his way on Sunday to divide America, saying those who voted for John Kerry did not "take the bible seriously." Wallis shot back, saying, "Jerry, there are millions and millions of Christians who want the nation to know that you don't speak for them...that Jesus, our Jesus isn't pro-rich, pro-war and only pro-American. We don't find that Jesus anywhere in the Bible."

FALWELL REAFFIRMS BLAME FOR 9/11 ON GAYS, FEMINISTS: Falwell refused to back down from his comment that 9/11 had been caused by "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians [and] all of them who have tried to secularize America." He reiterated that, "when we defy the Lord, I think we pay a price for it."

FALWELL FLIP-FLOPS ON GOD, WAR: Falwell contradicted himself on the war in Iraq, cited by 42 percent of respondents as the moral issue which most influenced their vote on Nov. 2. When Rev. Wallis asked him why he had said God was "pro-war," Falwell said, "I don't believe God loves war…everybody hates war." The name of Falwell's 1/31/04 commentary? "God is Pro-War."

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON CIVIL RIGHTS: Falwell and Land tried to cast their anti-abortion crusade as similar to the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. But Al Sharpton reminded Land it was his own church that fought against King. "What [King] did was fought against the Southern conservative values of those days," said Sharpton. "He fought the Southern Convention that you represent. Dr. King fought that convention. Let's not rewrite history." Wallis added that King had served as a model of how religion and values could play a part in political life: "He reminded us of this wonderful vision of a beloved community where no one gets left out and those who are always left out have a front-row seat."

RELIGIOUS RIGHT SETS AFTER COURTS: The Palm Beach Post's George McEvoy reports Congressmen pandering to the Christian right wing are planning ways to strip federal courts of "their right to hear cases involving the separation of church and state." Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN), addressing a special legislative briefing of the Christian Coalition last month in Washington, said he planned to introduce a bill that would "deny federal courts the right to hear cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex marriage." Unimpressed by America's system of checks and balances, Hostettler inveighed, "When the courts make unconstitutional decisions, we should not enforce them. Federal courts have no army or navy...At the end of the day, we're saying the court can't enforce its opinions." Rep. Robert Aderholdt (R-AL), recently advocated "court stripping as a means to protect state-sponsored Ten Commandment displays."

KENNEDY WARNS BUSH: Another conservative religious leader, Dr. James Kennedy, whose sermons are broadcast in 3 million homes, has warned that God will "be angry" if President Bush does not act soon on abortion and gay marriage. "He said he knows of no timetable for God's wrath, but wants results fast." Asked about the millions of Americans who are not Christian, or have a different interpretation of Christianity, Kennedy recommended they "repent" and said he "couldn't care less" about their views.

Posted: 28 Nov. 2004

More about the dubious results from Ohio and elsewhere.

New Ohio voter transcripts feed floodtide of doubt about Republican election manipulation
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Voting Machines Count Backwards in Okla.
by Bob Nichols

Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election
By Wayne Madsen
November 25, 2004—According to informed sources in Washington and Houston, the Bush campaign spent some $29 million to pay polling place operatives around the country to rig the election for Bush. The operatives were posing as Homeland Security and FBI agents but were actually technicians familiar with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad, Unilect, and Danaher Controls voting machines. These technicians reportedly hacked the systems to skew the results in favor of Bush.

he money to rig the election in favor of Bush reportedly came from an entity called Five Star Trust, largely based in Houston but a worldwide entity that is directly tied to the Saudi Royal Family. Five Star Trust was termed "a well-protected vehicle" that has been used to support both Bush and Osama bin Laden in the US and around the world.

Posted: 27 Nov. 2004

A valuable site for learning what women face around the world. It's called Women Living Under Muslim Rule.

Posted: 24 Nov. 2004

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

November 24, 2004

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin
From The Progress Report.

THANKSGIVING
21 Reasons to Give Thanks

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list:

We're thankful for our country's troops.

We're thankful for California's trailblazing on stem-cell research.

We're thankful that when Vice President Cheney decided to 'change the tone' in Washington small children were not present.

We're thankful for Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett, Jack Ryan, and Tom DeLay for helping us understand conservative moral values.

We're thankful for Costco, for showing Wal-Mart that you can offer rock-bottom prices without paying rock-bottom wages.

We're thankful for presidential term limits.

We're thankful for Canada, for picking up the slack and providing affordable drugs to America's seniors.

We're thankful for John Ashcroft finally making us safer…by resigning.

We're thankful for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…for now.

We're thankful for Gen. Shinseki, Bunny Greenhouse and Eliot Spitzer for speaking truth to power.

We're thankful to President Bush for all of his hard work. 'Cause "no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard."

We're thankful for policy wonks who read the fine print of the omnibus and stopped the turkeys in Congress from reading our income tax returns.

We're thankful for Starbucks, for providing health care to temporary employees, insider information to friendly progressives, and caffeine to the bleary-eyed Progress Report team.

We're thankful for Poland – we will remember you, always.

We're thankful for Air America for taking on conservative talk radio…and winning.

We're thankful for Jon Stewart for using comedy to highlight the essential truths – about the media, politicians, and – especially - Tucker Carlson.

We're thankful for the students, religious leaders and activists who have kept the spotlight on the Sudan while the rest of the world was riveted by Barry Bonds and Scott Peterson.

We're thankful that Halliburton isn't cooking our Thanksgiving dinner.

We're thankful for Republicans like Sens. Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel and John McCain for putting principles over partisanship.

We're thankful to David Graham for having the guts to take on the pharmaceutical industry.

And last but not least: We're thankful to the Progress Report readers for their tips, energy and support.

Happy Thanksgiving! – The Progress Report Team.

Posted: 21 Nov. 2004

I've felt this from the beginning. War is Peace. Lies are Truth.

Why Bush's America Feels Like Orwell's 1984

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Jonathan Greenberg, author of "America 2014: An Orwellian Tale."

As President Bush moves to implement what he proclaims to be his "mandate," millions of Americans find ourselves baffled that so many of our fellow citizens could have voted for a leader whose tenure has been marked by a series of failures and deceptions. For an answer, I suggest that we look to George Orwell's 1984, and to the triumph, this election season, of a little known but essential component of the Republican right agenda known as 'perception management."

The closest thing to an admission of a "perception management" strategy came from a recent New York Times Magazine article, in which a senior advisor of the Bush Administration scoffed at Americans who exist in 'the reality based community," who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernable reality. That's not the way the world works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."

READ THE REST.

One of the anonymous internet things.

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war,
I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Molly Ivins: So much for moral values
By Molly Ivins
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, November 18, 2004
AUSTIN, Texas -- My, my, gonna be a long four years.

House Republicans have rewritten the ethics rules so Tom DeLay won't have to resign if indicted after all. Let's hear it for moral values. DeLay is one of the leading forces in making "Republican ethics" into an oxymoron.

The rule was passed in 1993, when Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was being investigated for ethics violations. And who helped lead the floor fight to force him to resign his powerful position? Why, Tom DeLay, of course. (Actually, it's sort of a funny story. The D's already had a caucus rule that you had to resign from any leadership position if indicted. The R's changed their rules to match the D's, except they deliberately did not make their rule retroactive, so the highly indicted Rep. Joseph McDade, senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, could, unlike Rostenkowski, retain his seat.)

DeLay has already been admonished by the House ethics committee three times on separate violations of ethics rules. Please note, that is the Republican-dominated ethics committee. The hilarious rationale offered by the R's for the new rule to exempt DeLay is that no one can accuse them of taking the moral low road here because, "That line of reasoning accepts that exercise of the prosecutor in Texas is legitimate."

Uh, that would Ronnie Earle of Austin, who is a known Democrat. One the other hand, Earle is quite noted for having indicted more Democratic officeholders than Republicans, so it's a little hard to argue that this is a partisan political probe. Or it would be, if facts made any difference these days to talk-show screamers.

Showing his usual keen sense of ethics, DeLay has already started a legal defense fund and raised $310,000 since last summer. According to the Austin American-Statesman, half the money has come from Republican House members, who are all dependent on the Republican Steering Committee for their committee assignments and chairmanships.

DeLay has three votes on the 28-member committee and, of course, more clout than anyone else in the House. (See Lou DuBose and Jan Reid's new book, "The Hammer," for more charming details on DeLay's House dictatorship). The other half of the contributions for DeLay's legal defense has come from political action committees, corporations and individuals.

Hey, no worries about corrupting influence there because DeLay already does favors for big contributors to his plain old political action committees, even without additional contributions to his defense fund. Moral values. DeLay is going to give born-again Christians a bad name.

In furtherance of moral values, Congress now has to raise the debt limit by another $800 billion. We actually reached the debt ceiling in early October, but obviously the R's didn't want that vote coming up before the election. Then after they finish spending a staggering amount of money, the R's will return to make Bush's tax cuts permanent.

Now I realize that the Bushies consider it a point of pride to pay not one iota of attention to what the rest of the world thinks about us. But I would like to point out that the rest of the world is holding our paper. And foreign investors have demonstrated elsewhere that they are quite capable of taking alarm over unsound fiscal practices and pulling out completely, leaving bankrupt countries behind.

Speaking of what the rest of the world thinks of us, the matter was nicely summed up by Britain's Daily Mirror with its classic tabloid headline, "How Can 59,054,087 People Be So DUMB?" The Guardian just put a tiny, white-on-black headline: "Oh God."

I realize the "liberal elites" are not allowed to even quote the word "dumb" lest we be accused of "cultural condescension" toward our salt-of-the-earth red-state compatriots. Since I'm a populist happily living in the midst of a quite red state (some of my best friends are named Bubba), I never pay any attention to such horsepoop. But I do resent it when the people running the country think we're so dumb they can rip us off and then tell us to pray.

Planet of the Apes is more than sf. Here's a fascinating article about the crossover of human-animal genetic engineering.

Of Mice, Men and In-Between
Scientists Debate Blending Of Human, Animal Forms

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 20, 2004; Page A01

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins.

In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human.

In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls.

These are not outcasts from "The Island of Dr. Moreau," the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells in which a rogue doctor develops creatures that are part animal and part human. They are real creations of real scientists, stretching the boundaries of stem cell research.

Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. They are the products of experiments in which human stem cells were added to developing animal fetuses.

Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how nascent human cells and organs mature and interact -- not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures. Some are already revealing deep secrets of human biology and pointing the way toward new medical treatments.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 19 Nov. 2004

From Grist on-line magazine.

STICK A PORK IN IT
GOP senators pack anti-environmental pork into huge spending bill

Powerful Republicans in Congress fought valiantly against the "do nothing" label yesterday by trying to do an awful lot for their industry cronies. A number of senators endeavored to attach various anti-environmental provisions to a must-pass government-funding bill, including measures that would (take a deep breath) strip wilderness status from Georgia's Cumberland Island, ease grazing permit rules, exempt big dairy and livestock operations from having to report on toxic emissions, give the Army Corps of Engineers billions for environmentally (and fiscally) questionable water projects, and clear the way for commercial fish hatcheries and oil drills on some federally protected parcels in Alaska. "This is a pork-barrel extravaganza," said David Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation. "It's one of the worst I've ever seen, and I've been doing this 25 years." No word yet on which pork rinds will make it into the final package and onto President Bush's desk.

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Elizabeth Shogren, 19 Nov 2004

KICK THE HABITAT
Republicans take aim at Endangered Species Act

Republican leaders in Congress, bolstered by their election gains, no doubt have several environmental laws and regulations in their sights, but a top priority is revamping the Endangered Species Act. Developers, many Republicans, and a handful of Democrats have long contended that the act's requirements for protecting critical habitat are outdated and burdensome to economic progress. Enviros view them as the very soul of the act. Read about the state of play -- in Muckraker, today on the Grist Magazine website.

today in Grist: The Republican majority in Congress is going after the ESA -- in Muckraker

sign up: Receive word by email each time a new Muckraker column hits the scene

The people at blackboxvoting.com soldier on.

Bev Harris Finds 'Missing'
FL Vote Records In Trash!
Black Box Voting.org
11-17-4

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all in Volusia County, Florida Here's what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" she exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. We didn't back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile, but I noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for "privacy" reasons we can't have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give us copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to our attorney). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and we arranged to come back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing us in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested we go to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this morning. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered us out. Well, we couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. We stepped out and they promptly shut the door behind us.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at us. We drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. I decided to go look at the garbage some more. Kathleen videotaped this. A man came out and I immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it for us, for our public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and we all stood around discussing the merits of my public records request.

They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived, and we all trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. We also found some that didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it upon herself to box up some items from an office, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. She took them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.

So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.

Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.

Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting

So much for the hypocritical party of "values". As reported by the Center for American Progress.

"And I think, frankly, we should adopt the rule the Democrats have prospectively, which I think is a sound rule that once indicted you step down."

– Newt Gingrich, 7/26/93

VERSUS

"House Republicans voted Wednesday to abandon an 11-year-old party rule that required a member of their leadership to step aside temporarily if indicted."

– NYT, 11/18/04

CONGRESS – GOP CLEARS WAY FOR CRIMINAL LEADERS: It's official: House Republicans voted yesterday to "abandon an 11-year-old party rule that required a member of their leadership to step aside temporarily if indicted." After all, said bill sponsor Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX), "you can be indicted for just about anything in this country." Republicans took a less generous stance toward potentially criminal behavior in 1993, when they adopted the indictment rule to "spotlight the legal troubles of prominent Democrats." But the rule now threatened Republican House Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), whose three Texas associates already face indictments for "illegally using corporate money to help Republicans win state legislative races in 2002." Not all Republicans agreed with the change, however: Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) said it was a "mistake." Call or e-mail your representative and find out whether he or she supports these closed-door efforts to protect the majority leader from ethical scrutiny.

JUSTICE – POLICE STRIKE BACK AT ASHCROFT: The Bush administration claims it has made America safer, but those who would know best have a different point of view. A day after departing Attorney General John Ashcroft "told the nation's largest association of law enforcement executives that the Bush administration had made the nation more secure from terrorist attacks and violent criminals, the group lashed back at the White House." On Tuesday, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) "said that cuts by the administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever to public safety threats. The 20,000-member group also said in a statement that new anti-terrorism duties for local cops…have pushed police agencies to 'the breaking point.'" USA Today reports the group also is "annoyed that President Bush is phasing out a $10 billion program begun by the Clinton administration in 1996 to help local departments hire tens of thousands more cops."

INTELLIGENCE – GOSS DEMANDS COMPLIANCE: Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief already accused of undertaking a partisan purge of the C.I.A, has told employees their job is to "support the administration and its policies" in an internal memorandum obtained by the New York Times. "'As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies,' Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking 'to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road.'" Later in the memo, Goss maintained the Agency's mission was to "provide the intelligence as we see it," but the overbearing message of the memo seemed to suggest Goss wanted to "suppress dissent within the organization." A former intelligence official told the NYT he was "concerned that the memorandum and the changes represented an effort by Mr. Goss to stifle independence."

IRAQ – NO SUCH THING AS FREE WAR: In an op-ed for The Hill, active-duty Army officer and former assistant professor of political science at the U.S. Military Academy John Gossert takes the president to task for misleading Americans about the cost of war, and continuing to cut taxes in the face of record deficits. "There's no such thing as a free lunch," Gossert writes, "But President Bush and the Congress would have us believe there is such a thing as a free war…Never in our 229-year history has the government cut taxes in a time of war. Until now. The president has signed two tax cuts into law since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. Of course," says Gossert, "as much as this war 'feels' free, the time to pay for it must eventually come. And like a credit-card purchase with a usurious interest rate, the war in Iraq will prove more expensive in the long run."

AFGHANISTAN – DRUG BUSINESS BOOMING: Despite political progress epitomized by the country's first national elections last month, a new U.N. report fingers a major ongoing problem in Afghanistan: "Heroin production is booming…undermining democracy and putting money in the coffers of terrorists." The report "called on U.S. and NATO-led forces get more involved in fighting drug traffickers." Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said, "Fighting narcotics is equivalent to fighting terrorism. It would be an historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we reclaimed it from the Taliban and al-Qaida." The U.N. agency responsible for the report "said cultivation of opium…has spread to all of Afghanistan, with 10 percent of the population benefiting from the trade."

CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE RIGHT-WING QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We had one woman. She was outstanding, but she was outstandingly quiet....Now we've got 15 or 17, and you can't shut 'em up" – Departing statements of Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), on women in the Senate.

Posted: 16 Nov. 2004

From the Cynopsis online newsletter. This shows the danger of letting a tiny number of people have a negative effect on freedom of speech. Do you really want a tiny handful of bluenoses telling you what you can watch on TV?

Speaking of FCC fines, recall the fine against Fox for its Married by America episode of April 7, 2003, containing "s#xually suggestive" content which eventually earned it a $1.2 million fine? Web blogger Jeff Jarvis (www.BuzzMachine.com) has discovered that the 159 complaints received by the FCC were in fact just 90 complaints as confirmed by William H. Davenport, FCC Chief of Investigations and Hearings. Looking further, Jarvis discover that those 90 complaints were sent in, repeatedly, by 23 people. And of those 23, all but two of the letters were virtually identical - a form letter written by one and copied by many others. Bottom line - three letters were written. Of the millions of viewers who tuned in that April evening, three complaints bringing a fine of $1.2 million seems a little steep, eh? Fox plans to address the issue with the FCC.

Was the election stolen...again? You decide.

I Smell a Rat
by Colin Shea

The first signs of the rat were identified by Kathy Dopp, who conducted a simple analysis of voter registrations by party in Florida and compared them to presidential vote results. Basically she multiplied the total votes cast in a county by the percentage of voters registered Republican: this gave an expected Republican vote. She then compared this to the actual result.

Her analysis is startling. Certain counties voted for Bush far in excess of what one would expect based on the share of Republican registrations in that county. They key phrase is "certain counties"--there is extraordinary variance between individual counties. Most counties fall more or less in line with what one would expect based on the share of Republican registrations, but some differ wildly.

How to explain this incredible variance? Dopp found one over-riding factor: whether the county used electronic touch-screen voting, or paper ballots which were optically scanned into a computer. All of those with touch-screen voting had results relatively in line with her expected results, while all of those with extreme variance were in counties with optical scanning.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 15 Nov. 2004

At least some people have kept their integrity. I wonder how much it will cost him as Bush send Porter Goss to "clean up" the agency and replace true patriots with brainwashed drones.

CIA agent publicly chides White House for terror war
Defying protocol, analyst Mike Scheuer criticizes the administration for Iraq war and losing focus on Al Qaeda.
By Faye Bowers | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Mike Scheuer, a 22-year veteran who works in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and is a former head of its Osama bin Laden unit, is criticizing the Bush administration for going to war in Iraq and for the way it has conducted the war on terror in general. And he's doing it very publicly.

READ THE REST.

A book that is well worth investigating.

STEALING JESUS
In 300-odd pages, Bruce Bawer has opened a floodgate of incisive religious criticism that will reverberate across the American political scene. He has put into eloquent and decisive language what many mainline Christians and non-Christians have quietly suspected but been unable to verbalize--namely that Fundamentalist Christianity is barely Christian at all. A Baptist theologian says he is "not interested in who Jesus was." Pat Robertson argues the Golden Rule as Jesus's justification that "individual self-interest is being a very real part of the human makeup, and something not necessarily bad or sinful." In page after page, Bawer reveals a so-called Fundamentalist movement that readily displays a blatant disregard for the most salient message of the Gospels: selfless love and service to all. As for the significance of this revelation in the face of the ballooning presence of Fundamentalist Christians in American politics, readers will have to decide for themselves.

Product Description:
From the author of the widely acclaimed A Place at the Table, this is a major work, passionately outspoken and cogently reasoned, that exposes the great danger posed to Christianity today by fundamentalism.

The time is past, says Bruce Bawer, when denominational names and other traditional labels provided an accurate reflection of Christian America's religious beliefs and practices. The meaningful distinction today is not between Protestant and Catholic, or Baptist and Episcopalian, but rather between "legalistic" and "nonlegalistic" religion, between the Church of Law and the Church of Love. On one side is the fundamentalist right, which draws a sharp distinction between "saved" and "unsaved" and worships a God of wrath and judgment; on the other are more mainstream Christians who view all humankind as children of a loving God who calls them to break down barriers of hate, prejudice, and distrust.

Pointing out that the supposedly "traditional" beliefs of American fundamentalism--about which most mainstream Christians, clergy included, know shockingly little--are in fact of relatively recent origin, are distinctively American in many ways, and are dramatically at odds with the values that Jesus actually spread, Bawer fascinatingly demonstrates the way in which these beliefs have increasingly come to supplant genuinely fundamental Christian tenets in the American church and to become synonymous with Christianity in the minds of many people.

Stealing Jesus is the ringing testament of a man who is equally disturbed by the notion of an America without Christianity and the notion of an American Christianity without love and compassion.

Posted: 7 Nov. 2004

Today, I have a big chunk of good material I implore you to read. Usually, I like to post the entire piece here, in case the link goes bad, and just to be more convenient. If I did that this time, my blog would go on forever. But please follow the links, read these articles, and return to check out the next link. Thanks for taking the time. As always: read, question, evaluate.

This Against the Grain commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.
Let’s try to snuff this election’s new Big Theory before it becomes Conventional Wisdom, although it’s probably too late. The subject matter is "moral values." The theory is this: Kerry lost because he was very unpopular with people who believe moral values are the most important issues. This group of values voters is growing and Democrats are doomed until they can win them over.

KERRY WON- EXIT POLLS WERE RIGHT- AND NOW DEMOCRACY IS EXITING OUR COUNTRY
by GREG PALAST

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.

Pro-life? Look at the fruits
by Dr. Glen Harold Stassen
I am a Christian ethicist, and trained in statistical analysis. I am consistently pro-life. ... I look at the fruits of political policies more than words. I analyzed the data on abortion during the George W. Bush presidency. There is no single source for this information - federal reports go only to 2000, and many states do not report - but I found enough data to identify trends. My findings are counterintuitive and disturbing.

No Longer a Christian
by Karen Horst Cobb
I was told in Sunday school the word "Christian" means to be Christ-like, but the message I hear daily on the airwaves from the “christian ” media are words of war, violence, and aggression. Throughout this article I will spell christian with a small c rather than a capital, since the term (as I usually hear it thrown about) does not refer to the teachings of the one I know as the Christ. I hear church goers call in to radio programs and explain that it was a mistake not to kill every living thing in Fallujah. They quote chapter and verse from the old testament about smiting the enemies of Israel. The fear of fighting the terrorists on our soil rather than across the globe causes the voices to be raised as they justify the latest prison scandal or other accounts of the horrors of war . The words they speak are words of destruction, aggression, dominance, revenge, fear and arrogance. The host and the callers echo the belief in the righteousness of our nation's killing. There are reminders to pray for our “christian” president who is doing the work of the Lord: Right to Life, Second Amendmendment, sanctity of marriage, welfare reform, war, kill, evil liberals. . . so much to fight, so much to destroy.

WHITE HOUSE: DEBT CEILING MUST BE RAISED
WASHINGTON Nov 3, 2004 — The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it will run out of maneuvering room to manage the government's massive borrowing needs in two weeks, putting more pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it convenes for a special post-election session.

The Day the Enlightenment Went Out
By GARRY WILLS
America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.

Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity? Not in France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain. We find it in the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists. Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous, so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals. They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed.

MEDIA ADVISORY:
Defining Bush's "Mandate"
Winning 51 percent of the popular vote in Tuesday's election, Bush administration officials were quick to declare that the results constitute a "mandate" for Bush's second term. This interpretation of the election caught hold in the mainstream media-- a sign perhaps that White House spin was triumphing over the actual numbers recorded on Election Day.

Posted: 6 Nov. 2004

I have to pity the children being "educated" in Texas. This level of influence on textbooks honks me off. I have to wonder, though, if Texas is the second-largest buyer of textbooks, who is the first?

Health Textbooks in Texas to Change Wording About Marriage
Published: New York Times, November 6, 2004

AUSTIN, Tex., Nov. 5 (AP) - The Texas Board of Education approved new health textbooks for the state's high schools and middle schools on Friday after the publishers agreed to change wordings in the texts to depict marriage strictly as the union of a man and a woman.

The decision involves two of the biggest textbook publishers and is another example of Texas' exerting its market influence as the nation's second-largest buyer of textbooks. Officials say the decision could affect hundreds of thousands of books in Texas alone.

On Thursday, a board member said that proposed new books ran counter to a Texas law banning the recognition of gay civil unions because the texts used terms like "married partners" instead of "husband and wife."

After hearing the debate on Thursday, one publisher, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, agreed to include a definition of marriage as a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife." The definition, which was added to middle school textbooks, was already in Holt's high school editions, Rick Blake, a company spokesman, said.

The other publisher, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, changed phrases like "when two people marry" and "partners" to "when a man and a woman marry" and "husbands and wives."

"The board expressed an interest in having us" make the change, Mr. Blake said. "We thought it was a reasonable thing to do."

But Mr. Blake said the publisher did not plan to add its definition of marriage in books to be sold outside Texas. A spokeswoman for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill did not immediately respond to questions.

A list of the books that were approved by the board, as well as those that were not, is sent to school districts for guidance when they choose books.

One board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat, asked the panel to approve the books without the changes, but her proposal was rejected on a 10-to-4 vote.

"We're not supposed to make changes at somebody's whim," Ms. Berlanga said. "It's a political agenda, and we're not here to follow a political agenda."

Another board member, Terri Leo, a Republican, said she was pleased with the publishers' changes. She had led the effort to get the publishers to change the texts, objecting to what she called "asexual stealth phrases" like "individuals who marry."

"Marriage has been defined in Texas, so it should also be defined in our health textbooks that we use as marriage between a man and a woman," Ms. Leo said.

Texas legislators enacted a law last year that prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex civil unions. The state already had a ban on gay marriage.

Neither publisher made all the changes that Ms. Leo initially sought. For instance, one passage that was proposed to be added to the teacher's editions read: "Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression, illegal drug use and suicide."

Randall Ellis, the executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, said the board had overstepped its bounds in suggesting and adopting the new wording.

"Their job is to review for factual information and instead what we see is the insertion of someone's ideology and agenda into the textbook of middle schoolers," Mr. Ellis said.

The board's approval caps months of debate over health textbooks. Much of it had centered on how much sex education should be included.

Posted: 3 Nov. 2004

I'm trying to fight off despair, but it isn't easy.

Array of Hope
Environmental leaders and thinkers on what comes next

First, let's get the name of the thing right. The election of 2004 confirms James Madison's worst nightmare: the takeover of all branches of the federal government not just by a single party, but by an extreme faction of that party.

Second, let's be clear about where we are headed. We the people are about to get more corruption, more division, more lies, more terrorism, more pollution, more breaks for the wealthy, more religious fanaticism, more corporate subsidies, more kids left behind, more struggling families, more debt piled on the backs of our children, more urban neglect, more nutty ideology, and further procrastination on the issue of potentially catastrophic climate change looming just ahead.

Third, the long-term objectives are clear: restore democracy to the United States by eliminating money from politics, reassert public control of the airwaves, restore a free, locally owned press, repair the frayed separation between church and state, and educate the people once again to be discerning citizens. How can we do such things? The same way all great and noble things are accomplished -- with patience, courage, energy, certainty, and a mastery of the art of strategy. The soft underbelly of the Bush-Cheney-Rove empire includes all thoughtful conservatives disturbed by recklessness; all honest persons offended by mendacity; and all true Christians sufficiently alert to notice the discrepancy between the words and life of the "Prince of Peace" and our foreign and domestic policies.

And we have no energy for despair!

David Orr is chair of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College and author of The Last Refuge, The Nature of Design, and Earth in Mind.


Paul Hawken

Push for complete campaign reform. Remove all corporate money from politics. Depoliticize the environment. Separate the U.S. Forest Service from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and place both in a Department of Interior that is a civil-servant, science-based organization. Make carbon drawdown an international priority. Create a revenue neutral "feebate" system to double America's automobile fleet mileage. Make conservation and efficiency lucrative for the average person.

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author. He is founder and director of the Natural Capital Institute.

MORE HERE.

Posted: 1 Nov. 2004

Some excellent commentary from J. Michael Straczynski on the subject of getting civility back into the political process.

It can be done, but it has to come with an overall change of attitude, especially from the Republicans.

Now let me preface this by saying that I've always felt strongly that the country needs both extremes...that's how we find our balance. I've always said that the American eagle needs both a right AND a left wing or it ain't ever getting off the ground.

To background further for a second...our founding fathers were pretty smart guys. They decided that the one trap they most needed to avoid was concentrating too much power in any one branch of the government, or in any one potential party.

So they created a series of checks and balances, divided the government between judicial, legislative and executive branches, for one very specific reason: to create a situation where people would have to compromise to get anything done...so that no one view would ever have a chance to hold sway.

Having set the stage, let me now proceed to the problem, and explain why so much of this rests at the feet of the Republican party.

For the last twenty plus years, the Right has hammered away at one consistent theme: that liberals are bad people, that Democrats are just shy of being traitors to America. You've had people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter out there spewing bile into the American spirit of the most hateful, false, and demonizing sort.

What happens is this: those who would like to believe this, do...and thus view the other side with hatred and distrust and the sense that they are traitors. And you don't compromise or deal with traitors.

On the other side of the political spectrum, you have people who you've just called traitors who know that they're no such thing...and when you call people disloyal traitors, they have a tendency to get real angry about it. And you don't compromise or deal with people who impugn your honor like that.

So right off the top...you have a situation where people are yelling at each other.

If you go back to the pre-Reagan years -- when a lot of this started to get going, not due to him per se but just timeline wise -- when you fielded candidates for president, it was business as usual...they had their positions, debated their positions...and you voted accordingly. The race wasn't predicated on the notion that the other guy's party is filled with traitors. The premise was that honorable people can disagree honorably and, most important, respect the system that puts them into office.

Nobody disliked Nixon more than me, but at the same time, I recognize that he had respect not only for the office, but for the process. He understood that the nature of the government was predicated on compromise. Sometimes rough, sure, sometimes behind-the-scenes strong-arming, but the system was what it was.

Now we have a nearly monolithic system in which the Republicans control the House, the Senate, the White House and, to all intents and purposes, the Supreme Court.

And they have used this as a stick to try and further consolidate power to destroy the spirit of compromise. (One leading republican advisor, Grover Norquist, went so far as to say that "Bipartisanship is another name for date-rape.") Democrats have been excluded from committee positions, actually booted out of meetings and told other meetings are off-limits...it has all become about destroying the very notion of compromise.

And here's the amazing thing about all this.

The government is *supposed* to be caught in bickering and argument, because that ensures that all sides are being heard.

When the government becomes monolithic -- on EITHER side of the aisle -- the corrolary is that the population ends up the one that falls into bickering and argument. Because too many people feel that they're not being heard, which leads to frustration.

This is not a left or a right issue, though at this moment it's the right that has pushed this situation through because they're objectively speaking the most organized and lock-stepped. It's an issue that goes to the very heart of the American system, and we are for the first time in living memory in actual jeopardy of seeing that system break down, for one fundamental and very simple reason:

Because Americans have been taught to hate and distrust one another.

The goal set down by the people who built this country was that we should constantly strive to "create a more perfect union." Not to tear each other apart, but to make a more perfect union of different beliefs and attitudes and policies.

And somewhere along the way, mainly in the last twenty years, we lost that.

Your mere civil discourse is at the other end of that dilemma.

jms
(J. Michael Straczynski)

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