Guest guest Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 Thu, 4 May 2006 06:14:45 -0400 (EDT) S opednews 2006 05 04 http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20060504_1.html Oped News Newest Articles click to read articles http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20060504_1.html By David Swanson Lobbying Hitler's Legislature For Peace ....many citizens (myself included) no longer believe Congress has the power to affect anything other than by removing Bush and Cheney from office. By Allen L Roland BUSH'S BAGHDAD PALACE / OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK It's also a highly visible Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush one finger salute to Iraq, the world and the American taxpayer ~ DEAL WITH IT ! By Missy Comley Beattie Over A Barrel War rage please! By Mathew Maavak Games, Cock-Fights And Fandangos In The Persian Gulf The Fifa World Cup begins next month. It's a quadrennial event that grips the entire world in a month-long state of frenzy. But there is a another game going on. Read the chicken trail from 60s nuclear strategist Herman Kahn to present day Iran. By Melinda Pillsbury-Foster Boobs, Panties, And Courage: How Honest Elections Could Change Alabama Sex sells anything and everything in America. But can sex sell liberty? A mother of two who makes it her life's work to confront corruption is going to find out. By Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews Interesting New Developments With " Invisible Ballots " DVD Project! I started this project almost eight months ago. Since then, more than 250 individual/group borrowers have been enlisted, one by one. I have an opportunity to reach eight to ten times that many in the course of a three-day conference! At the rate I've been going, it would take me 64 months (five years and four months) to get to 2,000 borrowers. In short, this is a much more efficient, cost-effective way to spread the word. By Sam Vaknin The Roots Of Anti-Americanism The United States is one of the last remaining land empires. That it is made the butt of opprobrium and odium is hardly surprising, or unprecedented. By Richard Mathis The Most Radical Story A Liberal Ever Told Jesus was a radical story teller who challenged organized religiosity and the establishment. By Tedbohne IMAGINE A CLOD LIKE DICK CHENEY SLAPPING THE RUSSIANS AROUND ABOUT DEMOCRACY! The US had better not start leaning on the Russians! By Steven Leser Emperor Palpatine Aka Darth Cheney Lectures Putin About Freedom We now have evidence of one of the big weaknesses of this administration, memory retention. Yes, I know, there exists a lot of other, perhaps more important shortcomings, but this one is a serious one too. By Mark S. Tucker Easy Nutrition - Part 6 The basics of nutrition are quite simple. You don't need a 300 page book to understand them. Here's the penultimate installment of a 7-part series proving just that. By Rob Kall Casey Tanking, As Predicted, But Faster. Casey continues to drop as OpEdNews predicted. By Lonna Gooden VanHorn America's Hitler, Part Two This article attempts to explain how feelings of fear and powerlessness contribute to a more easily manipulated citizenry. It continues to compare how both Hitler and Bush used religion and patriotism to manipulate the people and accomplish their goals. It touches upon the media's complicity in enabling both leaders to do what they did. By Joel Wendland Dick DeVos: Top Ten Things To Know About His Real Agenda Republican candidate for governor in Michigan Dick DeVos won't tell the truth about his record, so here it is. By Diane M. Grassi Congressional Recoil From Latest Dubai Takeover The national security implications of a foreign entity operating key factories that are Department of Defense suppliers might well have demanded the same call for scrutiny from the Congress as the Dubai ports deal. By Judy Aron Is Bush Adopting Hitler's Approach To Children And Education? When is government " help " voluntarily received and when is it forced upon us? Should we allow laws that will dictate mental screening, recording and even perhaps micro-chipping of our population? How does that measure up to what our founders intended in the name of freedom? By Randy Potter Bob Casey Jr's Free Fall Just Beginning According To Latest Poll " A Santorum Supporter's Perspective on the Casey Campaign By Jeff Cohen I'm Tired Of Bushes And Clintons Jeff Cohen is a media critic and writer. His latest book -- " Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media " -- will be available in September. By Rob Kall Blackwell Wins, Or Steals Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Primary Blackwell slinks into the general election for Ohio Governor. Ohio-- one of the most corrupt holes on the planet. By Dan DeWalt The People Take Their Case To The Speaker Vermonters have delivered the first salvo of impeachment resolutions to the Speaker of the House By JGideon 'Daily Voting News' For May 03, 2006 a run-down of the days elections/voting news from across the country and overseas. By Robert Koehler Crossing The Border What bothers me is the hypocrisy at every level of this debate, and the fact that, even among moderates, " rational " arguments - particularly economic arguments - to justify draconian policies, including the breakup of families, are just a cover to mask a reptile-brain fear of outsiders and the human impulse to exclude. By Don Monkerud Corruption Reform Campaign contributions are too high and too lax. Lobbyists solicit contributions, bundle contributions in networks, host fund-raising events, and even serve as campaign treasurers on committees and PACs, major sources of corrupting campaign money within the legal limits. They control the purse strings of office holders. By Don Monkerud New Announcement On Gas Tax Rebate President offers a quarter for gas tax rebates, others in Congress bicker. By Len Hart A Little Noted Victim Of Bush's Tyranny: The Individual Conscience A constitutional crisis looms. Bush refuses to enforce provisions of some 750 statutes and, in other instances, adds " signing statements " invariably at odds with the intentions of congress. Bush insists that he has the right to decide which laws are Constitutional and which are not. Just as important, however, are inumerable crises of conscience as citizens are forced to choose between what is right and what is Bush. By Mike Whitney Bush's Hand In The Terror War Tired of the same old BS about civil war and Zarqawi when you know something else is going on? Robert Fisk has connected the dots and fingered intelligence agents as the cause of the violence in Iraq. Who do you believe; Bush or Fisk? By Randolph T. Holhut FAREWELL, PROFESSOR GALBRAITH With John Kenneth Galbraith's passing, we lost a great hero for the cause of liberalism and I lost a great mentor. By Unknown Becoming Calm It works! By Stephen Lendman Evo Morales Now Joins Hugo Chavez As A US Target More evidence emerges that the Bush administration is planning hostile action against the democratically elected governments in Venezuela and Bolivia By Web, The Joke: The Seven Kinds Of Sex By Doug Thompson George W. Bush: An American Hitler In George W. Bush's petty, pathetic, partisan world, laws he doesn't agree with don't have to be obeyed, Congressional actions that differ from his political agenda can be ignored and the Constitution of the United States is just a " goddamned piece of paper. " By Margie Burns Premature Launch The administration launched its first PR blitz against Iraq on March 11, 2002, exploiting the six-month anniversary of 9/11. But the launch failed. Someone must have feared that the blitz would raise questions about September 11, 2001. By Jim Bush The Jinn By Sam Vaknin The Clash Of Islam And Liberalism This is not a clash of civilizations. Western culture is inextricably intertwined with Islamic knowledge, teachings, and philosophy. Christian fundamentalists have more in common with Muslim militants than with East Coast or French intellectuals. Islam is not merely a religion. It is also - and perhaps, foremost - a state ideology. It is all-pervasive and missionary. By Richard Mathis The Howling Hounds Of Hell The cultural war is more like a dog fight. By Ron Fullwood The Idiocy Is Swelling Bush's continuing aggression threatens to trigger yet another disaster for working Americans already struggling to absorb the industry-inflated energy costs. By Teresa Simon-noble Bush-Tony Snow-The Press By Mark S. Tucker American Rhetoric 101A - Part 15 The snarky and fleering sub-series on `property' concludes - oh, and be sure to thank the Insurance Industry for many of your property woes. By Tedbohne TIME FOR A QUICK CHECK Hmm. I wonder. By Bob Burnett Iraq - Seeking A Way Out The Biden-Gelb " three-state solution " gives the American people Iraq an additional option for Iraq, for a total of four. By Joaquín Ramón Herrera Fear And Courage - Pt 2. Part 2 of an essay on xenophobia, fear, America, and HR4437s consequences, already, on the emotional landscape. Live coverage of a Human Chain event in NYC's Garment District on May 1, 2006 by yours truly. By Kall, Rob Wealthiest, Most Educated In US As Healthy As Bottom Economic And Educational Rung In England Brits healthier than Americans at half the cost. By Mike Whitney Take Back The Oil Companies Here's an energy policy we can all live with. Nationalize the oil industry and dump the oil mogols in Guantanamo. That way they'll have plenty of time to think about how they dragged our kids to war to fatten their companies' bottom line. By Andrew Bard Schmookler FIGHTING FOR THE SOUL OF OUR COUNTRY! --A Battle Cry For Our Movement There is more at stake here than just which individuals hold power, and thus our rallying cry must be more than just " impeachment. " Those dark forces that have helped empower this presidency must be disgraced. We are fighting for America's soul. By Bob Burnett Iran - Inside Bush's Brain While pundits have explored the policy and political consequences of an attack on Iran, they've ignored an equally important consideration: How does President Bush actually make decisions? And, what does this suggest that he's going to do about Iran? By Jason Miller SUCCESS IS NOT AN OPTION: Washington loves to point the finger at " failed states " like Iran and North Korea....it is time America's ruling elite took a long hard look in the mirror... By JGideon 'Daily Voting News' For May 02, 2006 a run-down of the days elections/voting news from across the country and overseas. By Evelyn Pringle Karl Rove Indictment Long Overdue In peddling the story to reporters, a fact not known to most Americans is that Rove and Libby leaked the identity of a CIA agent who happened to be an expert on WMDs at a time when the US had supposedly went to war to eliminate the threat of such weapons being used against our country. By Allen L Roland COLBERT SCORES A KNOCKOUT It took just 15 minutes but Bush never had a chance. Colbert jabbed, feinted and satirically ridiculed every talking point from the Cheney/Bush myth machine to utter monsense before a room full of shocked Washington, D.C. insiders, powerless press corps and a visibly irritated President ~ it was satire and irony at its glorious best. By Larry Scott Vets' Commission Chair Gets OK To Study Social Security Benefits General Terry Scott asked Congress to interpret its own law defining the charter of the Vet's Commission. Unbelievably, and unconstitutionally, four key Members of Congress gave Scott the OK to study vets who get Social Security disability benefits and VA compensation. Scott's goal is an offset, a reduction, in vets' benefits. At stake: Veterans' benefits, veterans' privacy and the constitutional separation of powers. By Evelyn Pringle Tequin's Serious Injuries - Bristol-Myers Feigns Ignorance By Evelyn Pringle Relentless Drive For Oil Company Profits Threatens Overall Economy The higher oil prices are a threat to America's overall economy and the skyrocketing costs of heating public facilities and keeping school buses, police cars, emergency vehicles and snowplows running are wreaking havoc on local governments all across the country. By William Fisher AMERICAN BEDFELLOWS The " Global War on Terror " has produced the unintended consequence of bringing the United States ever-closer to some of the world's most repressive regimes. By Missy Comley Beattie Mission Impossible By DNC Bush Covering Uninsured Americans With More Failed Policies This week is " Cover the Uninsured Week, " a time for all Americans to bring attention to 46 million uninsured in our country. In fact, under President's Bush's failed leadership, 6 million more Americans have become uninsured. By Becky Burgwin Stephen Colbert…The New Jon Stewart Sorry Jon. Americans need in your face political satire not skits about why they call sweet rolls Danishes in Denmark. By Richard Mathis Why Didn't Osama Hit Us After 9/11? Osama is a far better strategist than W. By Mark S. Tucker Weekly Music Reviews - May 1-7 Folk and other root musics are an increasingly ignored genre in modern music and shouldn't be, as these three CDs amply illustrate. By Steven Leser Bush And The America He Created I feel like some kid went back in a Delorean and made Biff President, it screwed everything up, and we are all just waiting for some mad scientist to get the kid 1.21 gigawatts to go back and fix everything. By Joaquín Ramón Herrera Fear And Courage - Pt 1. Part One of a meditation upon the fear that being attacked has bred in our nation; how that fear has been encouraged and provided us by the war makers, and how it is turning America into a land split apart by hypocrisy. By Thaddeus Hoffmeister Scheduling Rumsfeld's Departure Discussing when and how Rumsfeld should be let go. By Planned Parenthood S1955 - Women In Every State Will Lose Health Care Benefits!! Your immediate action is needed on a bill before the U.S. Senate that could end basic health insurance coverage you depend on — birth control, cancer screenings, maternity care, and more. By Progressive States Network Major Conference To Highlight States' Anti-Corruption Efforts Author David Sirota, Maine Representative Nancy Smith, New Hampshire Senator Lou D'Allesandro, and New Hampshire Representative Jim Craig and other elected officials are slated to speak at an upcoming conference in Concord, NH, devoted to highlighting state strategies to fight corruption in government. Best News Links from the Web By Are You Tired Of Elections Being Rigged? Put this system in place, and rigging elections would be virtually impossible. By Diebold Disaster: Optical Scan Machines Fail In MI, Officials Forced To Hand-count Ballots Our Electoral System Meltdown continues as more and more reports come in on epidemic Electronic Voting Machine failures around the country. It's neck and neck right now as Diebold and ES & S battle it out for the prize of Worst Company, Worst Service, Worst Technology and Best Excuse Maker. But we've got a long way to go in this Election Year, so it's still anyone's contest. (Anyone's but the voters, that is.) ....Sound familiar? The Barry County mess, as it's being reported by WOOD-TV, sounds almost identical to the situation in Leon County, FL last December where " hackers " had exploited a security vulnerability in Diebold's optical scanner memory card causing it to print results that were virtually the opposite of the true results on the paper ballots. The " hackers " , who were computer security experts, had hidden all traces of their " crime " in that mock election test, so it would likely never have been discovered. By Diebold Disasters Deepen: PA Issues Security Vulnerability Alert For Diebold Voting Systems! Several Counties 'Locking Down' Machines as Company Promises Last Minute Software Fix Just Before Upcoming Primary Election Election Integrity Advocates Suggest Warning May Stem from Recent Independent Voting Machine Analysis Revealing Major Security Flaws in Diebold Hardware and Software By Diebold Not To Blame For Diebold Disasters Says Diebold No word yet on whose fault it wasn't that Diebold's paper-trail printers kept jamming all day, or on the 70 Diebold memory cards (otherwise known as thousands and thousands of ballots) which went missing. But we know that wasn't Diebold's fault either. Though perhaps the part about them being so incredibly easy for anybody to change the data on those cards in about 30 seconds while they're " missing " could be Diebold's fault. Nah. It's probably just the humidity. By Assimilation 101 The secret to blending in for immigrants, according to satirist Rich Herschlag, is to consume, consume, consume: cell phones, iPods, Grand Theft Auto, Botox. Then, maybe one day you too can achieve the American dream -- hiring someone for six dollars an hour. By Team Abramoff Visited The White House Over 200 Times In Bush's First 10 Months In Office As Keith Olbermann pointed out last night, someone from Abramoff's firm was at the White House every business day for 10 months through October 2001. That's a whole lotta access. By South Dakota's Abortion Revolt " An overwhelming majority of South Dakotans believe that the governor and the Legislature went too far. This legislation is extreme and does not reflect the values of South Dakotans who want families to be able to make personal decisions about health care without government interference, " said Jan Nicolay, former Republican lawmaker and spokesperson for the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. Nicolay's group, formed immediately after the law's passage by citizens, doctors, clergy and Republican politicians, launched a campaign to overturn the law with a ballot initiative. If the necessary signatures are collected by June 19, the law will be suspended pending the outcome of the November election. Meanwhile, in Statehouse primaries, Republican lawmakers who voted for the abortion ban are being challenged by more moderate Republicans who opposed the ban because they considered it too restrictive and an intrusion into people's private lives. By Stephen Colbert's Remarks To The President For those of you who missed the White House Correspondents' Dinner and want to see what all the brouhaha is about, the transcript of Colbert's remarks. By Colbert Shocks The Media Silent For days the battle has raged on the Web: Did Stephen Colbert go too far in lampooning President Bush, to his face, at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night? Is that why his barbs did not generate more laughter around the room of 2700 journalists, celebrities and other guests? Or was it because he suggested the press was spineless in failing to confront the president on Iraq? By Electronic Voting " dead In The Water " In Ireland " This report again reconfirms our opinion that the system is unsafe and vindicates not using it in the 2004 Local elections. Electronic Voting has been a disaster since its inception. Following yesterday & #65533;s PAC report Electronic voting in this country is now 'dead in the water'. The one ray of sunshine now emerging from this whole sorry mess is that it may be possible to sell the system as there seems to be some interest in purchasing it from abroad. The Government has squandered over 50 million euro of taxpayer's money on the system which nobody wanted. We along with others at the time opposed the introduction of Electronic Voting on a number of grounds all of which have been vindicated. We believed it was too expensive, would lead to a fall in voter turnout and was unsecure. " By Chinese Becoming Latest Terror Targets Chinese workers have been killed in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now, in response to China's oil deal with Nigeria, rebels declare that by investing in crude, which they claim belongs to the people, the Chinese government places its workers in Nigeria " in our line of fire. " By Help Susan Lindauer: Reporter Held Political Prisoner To Cover Up US Genocide In Iraq The hearing to have Susan Lindauer committed and forcibly medicated is scheduled for May 4, but it might not be beyond the government to move it to an earlier date to prevent her from getting competent representation. She needs a good, courageous attorney who is willing to confront the U.S. government with the evidence presented here, showing that she is sane, was seeking to save lives, and has been imprisoned in an attempt to cover up genocidal mass murder. By US Dollar Starts Big Slide Vs. Major Currencies: Why Should You Care About This? Imagine that. George W. Bush and friends created this monumental mess in just five short years -- a toxic fiscal stew that will take decades and trillions of dollars to clean up. Nice going George. By Impeachment Weighed Again Critics argue that it's wrong to impeach if there is no chance the Senate will convict. We disagree. This president's constitutional crimes have never been fully investigated, or, in many cases, investigated at all. Yet remember, it was only during the Watergate and impeachment hearings that Richard Nixon's most serious crimes came to light. Who knows what even Senate Republicans would do once witnesses, compelled to testify under oath in a House Judiciary Committee, started to tell the truth about Bush administration actions? For all these reasons, impeachment should be a key issue this election year, and a bill of impeachment should be submitted to the next House Judiciary Committee. By Surprising Number Of Ohio Repubs Say 'not' To Ney The soon-to-be-indicted lead pusher of the disastrous Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) had his primary race in Ohio's 18th District tonight. While most congressmen named in four different criminal indictments and convictions would usually be toast, this is, after all, Ohio. By Diebold Disaster: Company Gets 'F' From Election Board Chair As Machines Fail All Over Cuyahoga County OH On Primary Da Voting Machines Refuse to Power Up, No Paper Ballot Backups, 17,000 Absentee Ballots Must be Counted by Hand Voters Pay the Price, Investigations Are to Come... By Diebold Disaster: Cuyahoga County Still Counting As 70 Memory Cards Missing From 200 Precincts 50 Temp Workers Hired to Count Absentee Ballots which Diebold Machines Fail to Scan Properly... Problems Also Reported with ES & S and in Several Other OH Counties... Add this to our previous report on the Diebold Disaster in Cuyahoga County, Ohio during yesterday Primary Election. The Cleveland Plain Dealer headlines their story: " First all-electronic election marred by problems " . By GOP Sen. Specter: Hearing Vowed On Bush's Powers The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing the White House of a ''very blatant encroachment " on congressional authority, said yesterday he will hold an oversight hearing into President Bush's assertion that he has the power to bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years. ''There is some need for some oversight by Congress to assert its authority here, " Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. " What's the point of having a statute if...the president can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn't like? " By Wealthy, Insured Americans No Healthier Than England Lowest Class With Socialized Medicine Wealthy, insured Americans at the top of the education and income scale in the US suffered diabetes and heart disease at a similar rate to those at the bottom of the socio-economic scale in England. [Perhaps nationalized medicine focuses more on prevention...?] By Bush Top Economist: Gas Tax Cut Not The Answer ANOTHER BAD BUSH IDEA... " One of the things we worry about when we cut the tax on gasoline is that it basically stimulates additional use, " said Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. " Over a longer period of time, it would be a significant problem ... because what it would do is it would encourage us to use more oil, not less and that is the way we got to the situation right now, " he explained. " That probably is one of the policies that we would like to avoid, " he said. By Cut And Run? You Bet. - Lt. Gen. William E. Odom Why America must get out of Iraq now. Withdraw immediately or stay the present course? That is the key question about the war in Iraq today. American public opinion is now decidedly against the war. From liberal New England, where citizens pass town-hall resolutions calling for withdrawal, to the conservative South and West, where more than half of " red state " citizens oppose the war, Americans want out. That sentiment is understandable. By Energy Independence Day George Bush won't ask Congress for permission for torture or domestic spying. But when it comes to energy policy – he is very, very concerned about the limits of his presidential powers. By Doonesbury.com Poll: Even Fans Of Bush Think He's Awful 13,755 voters who said they hate Bush, 83% called him the worst president ever, 10% the second worst, and 6% the third worst. The really interesting statistic was that among the 319 voters who said they love Bush, 55% called him the worst president ever, 11% the second worst, and 33% the third worst. By Dear President Bush; About That " goddamned Piece Of Paper. " " Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, " Bush screamed back. " It's just a goddamned piece of paper! " Let us start out with the fact that the Constitution is actually written on parchment, not paper. A trivial point, I grant you, but one that reveals (along with your inability to correctly pronounce the word " nuclear " ) a shocking lack of education in a head of state. But to get to the point, the Constitution is not the parchment itself, but the ideas written upon it; ideas which form the foundations of our nation, ideas which would carry equal weight if written on stone, glass, metal, or even paper. These ideas are the soul of the nation...Go over to Arlington National Cemetery. It's not that far from where you live. Look at those tombstones. By your statement, you have written across each and every one the words, " Died for a goddamned piece of paper. " By IRAQ: War On The Cheap The Iraq war has been the war fought on the cheap - not enough body armor, not enough armor on vehicles, not enough night vision equipment. It has been the war in which packages from back home have had to fill some crucial needs. Now, we have chow call at the Greenwood Credit Union in Warwick, R.I. It's the latest in home-front intervention. It's partially in response to the unthinkable image of U.S. Marines approaching Iraqi citizens and asking for food because they do not have enough. [i have been told by military personnel that though Halliburton has billions in contracts to feed and house them (three hots and a cot are what you are promised when you sign up), soldiers are having to use their own money to buy food off the local economy to survive. Where is all that damn money -- being diverted to the IRAN WAR that is already underway. These guys are pulling 22-hour shifts on two crappy Halliburton meals. AN OUTRAGE... AL] By Supreme Court: Ginsburg: Says GOP Congress' Watchdog Plan 'Scary,' Like 'Soviet Union' Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday that a Republican proposal in Congress to set up a watchdog over the federal courts is a " really scary idea. " Ginsburg told a gathering of the American Bar Association that lawyers should stick up for judges when they are criticized by congressional leaders. " My sense now is that the judiciary is under assault in a way that I haven't seen before, " she said... " It sounds to me very much like the Soviet Union was .... That's a really scary idea. " s By Bush Lost His Magical Hoodoo - Voodoo Mojo The Bush administration has a new buzzword. Like Bush, his entire administration, and the GOP in general, the buzzword is about lame as can be expected. So, what's the word thought capable of making a lame-duck criminal failure appear only to be in a rut? Mojo! That's right, the word chosen to save the entire Bush presidency is, " mojo. " It is a rather bizarre choice of words for an administration that has spent the better part of its existence pimping itself out to be Jesus' very own White House on earth... By Bill To Reauthorize The Voting Rights Act A Bipartisan Affair On May 2, thirteen Democratic and Republican legislators came together on the steps of the Capitol to announce their support for legislation to renew key expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The bill, HR 9/S. 2703, " The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 " was named for three famed heroines of the civil rights era. Sen. John Conyers Jr., D. Mich., called the bill " the most important bill I will be working on in the 109th Congress. " By 21 Dem Senators Follow Santorum Into War With Iran By E-VOTE MELTDOWN: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Man Smashes Diebold Touch-Screen Voting System In Ohio! CLEVELAND -- A 61-year-old man was arrested after an alleged poll rage incident... Officials said the man was arrested after breaking a voting machine. He faces disorderly conduct, obstructing official business and resisting arrest charges. Some might call him a new kind of hero. By Capitol Hill Joins Criticism Of Smithsonian Film Deal Even the Smithsonian is not beyond reproach... By FEMA's Follies FEMA through the lens of political cartoonists. By AZ SOS Office...misinforms...radio Listeners About Diebold Hack, HAVA The sort of cowardice that this sort of thing -- the unwillingness to actually discuss these matters on air with someone like myself who won't allow these officials to get away with their misinformation -- really underscores how the AZ Secretary of State's office (and many others like it around the country) seem to feel they are not beholden to the citizens. They seem to forget entirely that they work for those citizens for whom they are elected or appointed to provide free, fair, accurate and transparent elections in which confidence can be had by all of the voters. Instead, Brewer and others like her, seem to have sold their allegiance to the Voting Machine Companies. It's bizarre. Why wouldn't these people want to talk to the voters? Why wouldn't they be concerned about them having confidence in elections and election equipment that they have been designated to select and oversee? If they have so much personal confidence in them, why are they so afraid to answers questions directly about them? If they have nothing to hide, and have real confidence in the way they are running elections, shouldn't they be more than willing to answer any and all questions about their equipment and elections? By If Not Now... When? So, Bill Frist, Harry Ried, pull together a bipartisan panel made up of your toughest, most skeptical prosecutional-minded members, hire a couple of junkyard dog lawyers to act as GOP and Dem counsels, and let the long overdue hearings begin. Subpoena everyone who had anything to do with those meetings, including secretaries who transcribed the original minutes. Oh, and when you call oil industry execs back, put them under oath this time. Because they lied last time when they said they had no idea... By A Turning Point By William Rivers Pitt Newly-minted White House chief of staff Josh Bolten has signaled his desire to end the traditional publicly-televised daily press conferences with the White House press secretary. This will take a load off Tony Snow's mind, to be sure, and will save the rest of us from having to hear so many sad, disquieting, disturbing facts. Bill Maher, host of the HBO program " Real Time, " threw a thought for George W. Bush against the wall during his closing monologue the other night. " You govern like Billy Joel drives, " said Maher to Bush. " You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a s****y president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. " Indeed. By Cheney's Office Knew Plame's Work Was Sensitive MSNBC David Shuster's Tuesday report suggested that the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney was aware of the sensitivity of Plame's work, though there are no indications he knew she was working on Iran. His report Monday, which can be read here was the first television report to identify Plame's Iran work. By After Reports, New Jersey Senator Calls On CIA Director To Conduct Plame Damage Assessment In light of reports that CIA Agent Valerie Plame was working to track Iran's effort to obtain nuclear weapons when her identity was leaked, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) today called on CIA Director Porter Goss to provide an assessment of the damage to national security from the incident By Funeral Protest Ban Approved Minnesota: A bill intended to stop protesters from disrupting funerals is on its way to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's desk. The Legislature on Monday approved the measure, with only two votes against it in the House and one in the Senate. The bill would require demonstrators to stay back at least 500 feet from funerals and graveside ceremonies. Violators would face gross misdemeanor charges. Legislators pushed the bill after anti-gay protesters disrupted a soldier's February funeral in Anoka. By 9-11 LAWSUITS SUPPRESSED While the media plays up the significance of the government show trial of the seemingly deranged " 20th hijacker " Zacharias Moussaoui, not one 9-11 victim's lawsuit has been allowed to be heard in a trial by jury. Why have the 9-11 victims' families not been given the same right to have their cases heard in an open trial? By Secret Service Will Release Abramoff's White House Visitor Logs Abramoff, who represented Indian tribes in their dealings with Washington politicians, once was one of the city's most successful lobbyists. He pleaded guilty in January in Washington to federal charges stemming from an investigation into his ties with members of Congress and the Bush administration. He also pleaded guilty to fraud charges in Miami concerning a multimillion-dollar purchase of SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet in 2000. Administration officials have refused to say how many times Abramoff, who raised at least $100,000 for President Bush's re-election, has been to the White House. Bush has said he doesn't know Abramoff. By How Bush Hides The True Cost Of His Iraq War The Senate is expected to pass an emergency spending bill this week to provide $71 billion for military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the bulk of it going to Iraq. The new money would bring to at least $320 billion the total cost of a war that senior Bush aides once promised would be financed largely by Iraqi oil revenues. The spending measure is the fourth emergency appropriations bill Bush has asked Congress to pass to pay for the war in as many years, with each legislative initiative larger than the last. By GOP, LOBBYISTS, PROSTITUTION RING? The FBI has discovered that several Republicans may be involved in a lobbyist-supported prostitution ring at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., according to a Wall Street Journal story that broke Thursday. The Journal reports that there is so much evidence that investigators are spreading across D.C. to see exactly how many lawmakers are involved. Mitchell Wade tipped off prosecutors about the sex-for-favors scheme, according to Daily Kos. Wade has already pleaded guilty to bribing Randy " Duke " Cunningham, former representative to Congress from San Diego, and is cooperating with investigators. By Congressional Sex Scandal? sources close to the investigation tell us, as well as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, that sexual favors may have been part of the deal. The allegations include descriptions of Washington, D.C. poker parties in hotel suites, where prostitutes were brought by limousine as part of the entertainment. No comment from the owner of the limousine company, a man with a long criminal record who just happened to get a $20 million contract to provide limousine service for the Department of Homeland Security. Typical Neocon Right Wing Fundamentalist Hypocracy!! Will we be hearing about Gannon, Gluckert and the midnight rides of Karl Rove?? By Electronic Voting Swithc Threatens Mass Confusion: Financial Times (London) (Why does it take a British paper to cover this?)With about 8,000 separate election authorities managing approximately 175,000 polling places and perhaps as many as 150,000 different ballot forms that include choices for everyone from senator to dogcatcher, American elections are complex even when all goes well. But this cycle sees many states and smaller jurisdictions making last-minute efforts to switch to electronic voting, and early signs of trouble are appearing. By I'm The Decider (Bush Through A Beatles-esque Lens) Here's a song spoof for your listening pleasure. By Hypocrite-In-Chief Bush At It Again... National Anthem Sung In Spanish At First Bush Inaugural By The Science Of Happiness and test your happiness with this short, easy test. By Lay Wraps Up Testimony At Enron Trial After exchanging some parting shots with his prosecutor, Kenneth Lay finished six days of testimony at his federal fraud and conspiracy trial Tuesday. By The Best Brokerage Analysts Wall Street has 3,400 sell-side analysts covering U.S. stocks. Consensus projections aggregate and simplify this mountain of research but may not provide the best information for making investment decisions. The truth is that consensus earnings forecasts are accurate to the penny a mere 14% of the time. That's why the updated Forbes.com/StarMine rankings of the best security analysts are so important: They identify the men and women who have proved their mettle for accurately forecasting earnings or for advising investors on when to buy, sell or hold. By Book: Homeland Security Not Doing Enough The Homeland Security Department has made the nation only marginally safer than it was before the 2001 terror attacks that spawned its creation, the agency's former internal watchdog charges in a new book. The memoir released Monday byformer Homeland Security inspector general Clark Kent Ervin also accuses Tom Ridge, the department's first secretary, of shutting down critics instead of focusing on terrorists. His book, " Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Terrorism, " outlines security gaps at U.S. airports, in mass transit systems, and at borders. It points to the department's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina as proof that Homeland Security remains unprepared for threats. By Bush In `ceaseless Push For Power' Bush had shown disdain and indifference for the US constitution by adopting an " astonishingly broad " view of presidential powers, a leading libertarian think-tank said on Monday. The critique from the Cato Institute reflects growing criticism by conservatives about administration policy in areas such as the " war on terror " and undermining congressional power. By Internet Freedom Gains Big Momentum New York Times Endorses Net Neutrality, Internet Freedom Bills Offered in Congress, SavetheInternet.com Coalition Passes 500,000 Petition Signatures By Galbraith: The Predator State Enron, Tyco, WorldCom... and the U.S. government? Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature—a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealthy; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live. By No Bar Code A Virginia farmer says a revolution against industrial agriculture is just down the road. By Reports: Plame Was Monitoring Iran Nukes When Outed By Rove, Libby, & Novak MSNBC correspondent David Shuster reported that intelligence sources told him thatr Wilson was part of an operation three years ago " tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran. " And the sources asserted, he said, " that when here Wilson's cover was blown, the administration's ability to track Iran's nuclear ambitions was damaged as well. " Plame's outing resulted in " severe " damage to her team and " significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation. " By Iran And America's Dangerous Brinkmanship Insider -- " What I learned from this foreign minister last night and a room full of extremely smart people is that there are forces escalating America's and Iran's tensions -- and a single serious miscalculation could dramatically alter America's position in the world -- and yet miscalculations are already abounding. " By Exporting The American Model The gap between preaching and self-deception in the way we promote democracy abroad is even greater than in selling our economic ideology. Our record is one of continuous (sometimes unintended) failure, although most establishment pundits try to camouflage this fact. The Federation of American Scientists has compiled a list of over 201 overseas military operations from the end of World War II until September 11, 2001 in which we were involved and normally struck the first blow. The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not included. In no instance did democratic governments come about as a direct result of any of these military activities. By New Army Documents Reveal US Knew Of And Approved Torture Before Abu Ghraib Scandal New Army documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union today reveal that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ordered interrogators to " go to the outer limits " to get information from detainees. The documents also show that senior government officials were aware of abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. By Ted Rall: HIGH PRICES CAUSED BY IRAQ WAR Bush Could Ease Pain at the Pump--If He Wanted... By Think All Illegal Immigrants Are Sneaking In? Think Again. Here's a fact you don't hear much about: Between a third and a half of the nation's illegal immigrants - at least 3.8 million people - entered the USA legally. That's right. They didn't slip across the border in the dead of night. They came from all over the world, stayed longer than their visas or entry documents allowed, and melted into society. There's little to stop them, despite millions spent on a post-9/11 program supposedly aimed at those who " overstay. " That's what four of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers did, according to a 2004 report by Congress' GAO. By Most US Young People Can't Find Iraq On Map: Study Most American young people can't find Iraq on a map, even though U.S. troops have been there for more than three years, according to a new geographic literacy study released on Tuesday. Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans aged 18-24 in a survey could place Iraq on an unlabeled map of the Middle East, a study conducted for Natl Geographic found. Only about one-quarter of respondents could find Iran and Israel on the same map. By Mexico's Fox To OK Drug Decriminalization Law Mexico's president will approve a law that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs to concentrate on fighting violent narco gangs, the government said on Tuesday. [Now Mexico will have to build a wall to keep Americans out...] By Gasoline Prices A " crisis " Says US Energy Sec.Bodman Bodman said on Tuesday that high gasoline prices which have skyrocketed to a near record are a " crisis " for Americans. " It is a crisis in the sense of the individual. " By Bush Buddy, Italian Leader Berlusconi Resigns Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the longest-serving leader in postwar Italy, resigned Tuesday to make way for a center-left government led by Romano Prodi that must re-energize a moribund economy. By U.S. Diplomat Joins Darfur Peace Talks U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick headed into a conference room with African Union mediators and delegates from the warring parties. By From King George Of 1776 To King George Of 2006, It's Time Declare Our Independence From Monarchal Rule When you read the document that was the birth certificate of this great nation, you can't help but be struck by how the Busheviks would regard it as a radical, perhaps even terrorist call to arms. The crimes and oppressions detailed in the Declaration of Independence vary in particularity from the King George of 1776 to the King George of 2006, but the essence of the grievances remain the same. We could list the bill of particulars stating the case for removing King George W. Bush from office, but it would be too long for your morning's breakfast reading. But it would include: By Iran Threatens Israel If U.S. Attacks A top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said Tuesday that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target in response to any U.S. attack. By 10 States Sue Bush Over Fuel Economy Rules Ten states, led by California, sued the federal government Tuesday to try to force the Bush administration to strengthen gas mileage requirements for sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. By MSNBC Confirms: Outed CIA Agent Was Working On Iran According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran. TRANSCRIPT By Stocks Turn Lower On Report Bernanke Feels 'misunderstood' Noted CNBC news anchor Maria Bartiromo announced on the air that she had a private conversation with Bernanke at a Washington dinner on Saturday and Bernanke told her that the media misunderstood his remarks. By Qatar Grants Millions In Aid To New Orleans Qatar was one of several Persian Gulf nations to donate tens of millions of dollars. Saudi Arabia, for instance, gave more than $100 million, and the United Arab Emirates pledged $100 million. Poor nations also donated. Less than a year after the Indian Ocean tsunami engulfed it, Sri Lanka gave $25,000 to the American Red Cross. Bangladesh gave $1 million, Cyprus $50,000, Ghana $15,000 and the Dominican Republic $50,000. By Common Cause Seeks Justice Probe Of Katherine Harris A congressional watchdog group asked the Justice Department on Monday to investigate whether Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., attempted to obtain a $10 million appropriation for a defense contractor in return for his financial support. Common Cause filed a complaint with the Justice Department, citing information provided by contractor Mitchell Wade, as part of a plea agreement in the bribery case of convicted former Rep. Randy " Duke " Cunningham, R-Calif. By Sen. Spector: The [Republican] Party Needs Somebody To Stand Up To The President " Specter is questioning the legality of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance of suspected terrorists without court warrants. By Safe Sex Prom Dress - Very Creative! By Boot Camp, Booted Spirits I'm not going to rag on the military, though I deeply hate the concept of killing. Yet, if my own children were threatened I might indeed eliminate the threat if I knew how. So, as they say, " God's not finished with me yet. " I haven't worked out the details of the scene where the mama bear has a conversation with Mahatma Ghandi. In addition, voices not too geographically distant from me would suggest that since I've never been in the military, anything I might say about it would be discounted. That, to me, is lame. If that were the case, then nobody could talk to anybody about anything other than their own personal experiences and it would eliminate any attempt at intelligent conversation and the hoped for goal of understanding the big issues in the world today. But wait! That's what's happening! And as long as we agree to that mindset, we remain cattle. Lemmings. Cannon fodder... Whether it's a church demanding compliance with a group sacramental ritual, a college locked into recognizing only certain categories of teachers, or a military with a program that results in one out of sixty recruits attempting suicide, the goal is the attempted annihilation of the individual spirit. click to read articles http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20060504_1.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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