Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Torture and International Law:
NY Times: Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo
"The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion 'tantamount to torture' on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.
The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called 'a flagrant violation of medical ethics.'
Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T. The team, known informally as Biscuit, is composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said.
The United States government, which received the report in July, sharply rejected its charges, administration and military..."
Bush, the Unconservative Spendthrift Still Thinks Deficits Don't Matter:
NY Times: Bush's Social Security Plan Is Said to Require Vast Borrowing
"The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts.
The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt.
But proponents of Mr. Bush's effort to make investment accounts the centerpiece of an overhaul of the retirement system said there were no realistic alternatives to some increases in borrowing, a requirement the White House is beginning to acknowledge...
...Proponents say the necessary amount of borrowing could vary widely, from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade, depending on how much money people are permitted to contribute to the accounts and whether the changes to Social Security include benefit cuts and tax increases..."
Iraq:
Marjorie Cohn: Setting the Conditions for War Crimes
"...[Seymour] Hersh, in interviews on MSNBC, PBS and Fox News, is now talking about what happens when we send young kids off to war. He does not deny that these kids can do bad things. But, 'the Army is in loco parentis,' he says. 'They're your mother and father. And they have an obligation to protect you from yourself, almost, from some of your instincts.'
A senior Pentagon consultant told Hersh that George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Steven Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, 'created the conditions that allowed transgressions to take place.' The consultant was referring to torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He could just as well have been talking about Operation Phantom Fury."
The So-Called War on Terror:
CS Monitor: Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com
"Late on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board
that is highly critical of the administration's efforts in the war on terror and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.'
The Pentagon released the study after The New York Times ran a story about the report in its Wednesday editions..."
The [Rigged?] November Election:
Wayne Madsen: Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election
"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.
The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program..."
NY Times: Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo
"The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion 'tantamount to torture' on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.
The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called 'a flagrant violation of medical ethics.'
Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T. The team, known informally as Biscuit, is composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said.
The United States government, which received the report in July, sharply rejected its charges, administration and military..."
Bush, the Unconservative Spendthrift Still Thinks Deficits Don't Matter:
NY Times: Bush's Social Security Plan Is Said to Require Vast Borrowing
"The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts.
The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt.
But proponents of Mr. Bush's effort to make investment accounts the centerpiece of an overhaul of the retirement system said there were no realistic alternatives to some increases in borrowing, a requirement the White House is beginning to acknowledge...
...Proponents say the necessary amount of borrowing could vary widely, from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade, depending on how much money people are permitted to contribute to the accounts and whether the changes to Social Security include benefit cuts and tax increases..."
Iraq:
Marjorie Cohn: Setting the Conditions for War Crimes
"...[Seymour] Hersh, in interviews on MSNBC, PBS and Fox News, is now talking about what happens when we send young kids off to war. He does not deny that these kids can do bad things. But, 'the Army is in loco parentis,' he says. 'They're your mother and father. And they have an obligation to protect you from yourself, almost, from some of your instincts.'
A senior Pentagon consultant told Hersh that George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Steven Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, 'created the conditions that allowed transgressions to take place.' The consultant was referring to torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He could just as well have been talking about Operation Phantom Fury."
The So-Called War on Terror:
CS Monitor: Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com
"Late on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board
that is highly critical of the administration's efforts in the war on terror and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.'
The Pentagon released the study after The New York Times ran a story about the report in its Wednesday editions..."
The [Rigged?] November Election:
Wayne Madsen: Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election
"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.
The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program..."
Saturday, November 27, 2004
The Establishment Clause, Slipping Away:
AP: Justice Scalia Rejects Separation of Church and State
"U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday that a religion-neutral government does not fit with an America that reflects belief in God in everything from its money to its military.
'I suggest that our jurisprudence should comport with our actions,' Scalia told an audience attending an interfaith conference on religious freedom at Manhattan's Shearith Israel synagogue..."
The Global Economy:
The tone Mr. Brooks strikes in his November 27 piece [below] is one often heard from self-congratulatory free-trade conservatives: in order to give drippings to the poor, the rich first deserve to be treated to obscene profits, and not a penny less.
Perhaps Mr. Brooks should write something on his own forehead: not all of world considers it justifiable to reward multi-nationals and the super-rich at the rate the global economy does, as the prerequisite condition for achieving gains in economic prosperity for the poorest in our society.
David Brooks: Good News About Poverty
The Right To Privacy:
NY Times: New High-Tech Passports Raise Snooping Concerns
"The State Department will soon begin issuing passports that carry information about the traveler in a computer chip embedded in the cardboard cover as well as on its printed pages.
Privacy advocates say the new format - developed in response to security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks - will be vulnerable to electronic snooping by anyone within several feet, a practice called skimming. Internal State Department documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Canada, Germany and Britain have raised the same concern..."
Just Throw Them In Jail And Keep Them There:
The societal cost of having so many people behind bars for non-violent offences is staggering.
NY Times: Sentencing-Guideline Study Finds Continuing Disparities
"The number of minority inmates in federal penitentiaries, as a percentage of all federal prisoners, has increased sharply since sentencing guidelines took effect in 1987 and now accounts for a majority of the prison population, a study reviewing 15 years of data has concluded.
The study was conducted by the United States Sentencing Commission, which sets the guidelines for federal judges. The panel examined how well the guidelines had brought uniformity to punishments, and found that while sentencing had become 'more certain and predictable,' disparities still existed among races and regions of the country, with blacks generally receiving harsher punishment than whites.
The findings come as the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the guidelines, which advocates say are crucial to achieving fairness in punishment. The justices could decide as early as next week whether to throw out the system because it allows judges, rather than juries, to consider factors that can add years to sentences.
Yet before the guidelines were created in 1987, judges had wide discretion in issuing sentences. The guidelines, in contrast, give them a range of possible punishments for a given crime and make it difficult for them to go outside those boundaries.
The study found that the average prison sentence today is about 50 months, twice what it was in 1984, when lawmakers began calling for a uniform sentencing system. The difference, the study determined, is due mostly to the guidelines' elimination of parole for offenses like drug trafficking..."
So-Called Non-Lethal Weapons:
NY Times: Claims Over Tasers' Safety Are Challenged
"Taser International, whose electrical guns are used by thousands of police departments nationwide, says that a federal study endorses the safety of its guns, but the laboratory that conducted the research disagrees.
Taser said last month that the government study, whose full results have not yet been released, found that its guns were safe. Since that statement, the company's stock has soared and its executives and directors have sold $68 million in shares, about 5 percent of Taser's stock and nearly half their holdings.
But the Air Force laboratory that conducted the study now says that it actually found that the guns could be dangerous and that more data was needed to evaluate their risks. The guns 'may cause several unintended effects, albeit with low probabilities of occurrence,' the laboratory said last week in a statement released after a symposium on Tasers, as the company's guns are known, and other weapons intended to incapacitate people without killing them..."
Questioning the FDA's Effectiveness:
NY Times Editorial: Looking for Adverse Drug Effects
"As the Food and Drug Administration continues to draw fire for its handling of various drugs and the flu vaccine crisis, one lesson is inescapably clear: the agency lacks enough power to ensure the safety of drugs after they are approved and on the market. That defect needs to be corrected before countless Americans are killed or hurt by dangerous side effects that did not show up in the original clinical trials and only became apparent when the drugs were in widespread use..."
AP: Justice Scalia Rejects Separation of Church and State
"U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday that a religion-neutral government does not fit with an America that reflects belief in God in everything from its money to its military.
'I suggest that our jurisprudence should comport with our actions,' Scalia told an audience attending an interfaith conference on religious freedom at Manhattan's Shearith Israel synagogue..."
The Global Economy:
The tone Mr. Brooks strikes in his November 27 piece [below] is one often heard from self-congratulatory free-trade conservatives: in order to give drippings to the poor, the rich first deserve to be treated to obscene profits, and not a penny less.
Perhaps Mr. Brooks should write something on his own forehead: not all of world considers it justifiable to reward multi-nationals and the super-rich at the rate the global economy does, as the prerequisite condition for achieving gains in economic prosperity for the poorest in our society.
David Brooks: Good News About Poverty
The Right To Privacy:
NY Times: New High-Tech Passports Raise Snooping Concerns
"The State Department will soon begin issuing passports that carry information about the traveler in a computer chip embedded in the cardboard cover as well as on its printed pages.
Privacy advocates say the new format - developed in response to security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks - will be vulnerable to electronic snooping by anyone within several feet, a practice called skimming. Internal State Department documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Canada, Germany and Britain have raised the same concern..."
Just Throw Them In Jail And Keep Them There:
The societal cost of having so many people behind bars for non-violent offences is staggering.
NY Times: Sentencing-Guideline Study Finds Continuing Disparities
"The number of minority inmates in federal penitentiaries, as a percentage of all federal prisoners, has increased sharply since sentencing guidelines took effect in 1987 and now accounts for a majority of the prison population, a study reviewing 15 years of data has concluded.
The study was conducted by the United States Sentencing Commission, which sets the guidelines for federal judges. The panel examined how well the guidelines had brought uniformity to punishments, and found that while sentencing had become 'more certain and predictable,' disparities still existed among races and regions of the country, with blacks generally receiving harsher punishment than whites.
The findings come as the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the guidelines, which advocates say are crucial to achieving fairness in punishment. The justices could decide as early as next week whether to throw out the system because it allows judges, rather than juries, to consider factors that can add years to sentences.
Yet before the guidelines were created in 1987, judges had wide discretion in issuing sentences. The guidelines, in contrast, give them a range of possible punishments for a given crime and make it difficult for them to go outside those boundaries.
The study found that the average prison sentence today is about 50 months, twice what it was in 1984, when lawmakers began calling for a uniform sentencing system. The difference, the study determined, is due mostly to the guidelines' elimination of parole for offenses like drug trafficking..."
So-Called Non-Lethal Weapons:
NY Times: Claims Over Tasers' Safety Are Challenged
"Taser International, whose electrical guns are used by thousands of police departments nationwide, says that a federal study endorses the safety of its guns, but the laboratory that conducted the research disagrees.
Taser said last month that the government study, whose full results have not yet been released, found that its guns were safe. Since that statement, the company's stock has soared and its executives and directors have sold $68 million in shares, about 5 percent of Taser's stock and nearly half their holdings.
But the Air Force laboratory that conducted the study now says that it actually found that the guns could be dangerous and that more data was needed to evaluate their risks. The guns 'may cause several unintended effects, albeit with low probabilities of occurrence,' the laboratory said last week in a statement released after a symposium on Tasers, as the company's guns are known, and other weapons intended to incapacitate people without killing them..."
Questioning the FDA's Effectiveness:
NY Times Editorial: Looking for Adverse Drug Effects
"As the Food and Drug Administration continues to draw fire for its handling of various drugs and the flu vaccine crisis, one lesson is inescapably clear: the agency lacks enough power to ensure the safety of drugs after they are approved and on the market. That defect needs to be corrected before countless Americans are killed or hurt by dangerous side effects that did not show up in the original clinical trials and only became apparent when the drugs were in widespread use..."
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Not-So-Forthright Bush Foreign Policy:
Newsday: U.S. kept quiet on Chávez plot
"The U.S. government knew of an imminent plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, in the weeks prior to a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the putsch.
Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned the Chávez government, Venezuelan officials said.
The Bush administration has denied it was involved in the coup or knew one was being planned. At a White House briefing on April 17, 2002, just days after the 47-hour coup, a senior administration official who did not want to be named said, 'The United States did not know that there was going to be an attempt of this kind to overthrow - or to get Chávez out of power.'
Yet based on the newly released CIA briefs, an analyst said yesterday that did not appear to be the case..."
Ready For the Fear? Here We Go Again:
Steve Weissman: Nukes, Neo-Cons, and the Bush Who Cried Wolf Again
"Somewhere in the Middle East, an exile group fights to overthrow a ruthless dictatorship, one that has long feuded with the United States and encouraged terrorists, especially against the Israelis. The exiles have also used terror, but are now selling themselves as small 'd' democrats.
Of greater interest to some, their country sits on an ocean of oil. Their people are Muslims, mainly Shiite. Their chief patrons are American Neo-Conservatives in and around the Bush Administration. And their latest song and dance is to warn the world that the hated regime they seek to topple is now building atomic bombs.
Where did we hear that before?.."
Media on Iraq:
Norman Solomon: A Voluntary Tic in Media
"When misleading buzzwords become part of the media landscape, they slant news coverage and skew public perceptions. That's the story with the phrase 'Iraqi forces' - now in routine use by U.S. media outlets, including the country's most influential newspapers...
...When reporting on a war that pits Iraqis against Iraqis on a daily basis, news accounts could refer to 'U.S.-allied Iraqi forces' or 'Iraqi government forces' - to distinguish them from the insurgent Iraqi forces that are on the other side. From the standpoint of journalism, which ought to strive for clarity and precision, that should be a no-brainer.
But the Bush administration - striving to promote the attitude that only U.S.-allied Iraqis are actual Iraqis worthy of the name - is eager to blur exactly what good reporting should clarify. And America's major media outlets are helpfully providing a journalistic fog around a central fact: The U.S. government is at war with many people it claims to be liberating..."
Newsday: U.S. kept quiet on Chávez plot
"The U.S. government knew of an imminent plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, in the weeks prior to a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the putsch.
Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned the Chávez government, Venezuelan officials said.
The Bush administration has denied it was involved in the coup or knew one was being planned. At a White House briefing on April 17, 2002, just days after the 47-hour coup, a senior administration official who did not want to be named said, 'The United States did not know that there was going to be an attempt of this kind to overthrow - or to get Chávez out of power.'
Yet based on the newly released CIA briefs, an analyst said yesterday that did not appear to be the case..."
Ready For the Fear? Here We Go Again:
Steve Weissman: Nukes, Neo-Cons, and the Bush Who Cried Wolf Again
"Somewhere in the Middle East, an exile group fights to overthrow a ruthless dictatorship, one that has long feuded with the United States and encouraged terrorists, especially against the Israelis. The exiles have also used terror, but are now selling themselves as small 'd' democrats.
Of greater interest to some, their country sits on an ocean of oil. Their people are Muslims, mainly Shiite. Their chief patrons are American Neo-Conservatives in and around the Bush Administration. And their latest song and dance is to warn the world that the hated regime they seek to topple is now building atomic bombs.
Where did we hear that before?.."
Media on Iraq:
Norman Solomon: A Voluntary Tic in Media
"When misleading buzzwords become part of the media landscape, they slant news coverage and skew public perceptions. That's the story with the phrase 'Iraqi forces' - now in routine use by U.S. media outlets, including the country's most influential newspapers...
...When reporting on a war that pits Iraqis against Iraqis on a daily basis, news accounts could refer to 'U.S.-allied Iraqi forces' or 'Iraqi government forces' - to distinguish them from the insurgent Iraqi forces that are on the other side. From the standpoint of journalism, which ought to strive for clarity and precision, that should be a no-brainer.
But the Bush administration - striving to promote the attitude that only U.S.-allied Iraqis are actual Iraqis worthy of the name - is eager to blur exactly what good reporting should clarify. And America's major media outlets are helpfully providing a journalistic fog around a central fact: The U.S. government is at war with many people it claims to be liberating..."
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Reuters: Krugman: Economic Crisis a Question of When, Not If
"The economic policies of President Bush have set the country on a dangerous course that will likely end in crisis, Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman told Reuters in an interview.
Krugman, who may be best known for his opinion column in The New York Times, said he was concerned that Bush's electoral victory over Sen. John Kerry earlier this month would only reinforce the administration's unwillingness to listen to dissenting opinions..."
"The economic policies of President Bush have set the country on a dangerous course that will likely end in crisis, Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman told Reuters in an interview.
Krugman, who may be best known for his opinion column in The New York Times, said he was concerned that Bush's electoral victory over Sen. John Kerry earlier this month would only reinforce the administration's unwillingness to listen to dissenting opinions..."
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Iraq:
CBS News: Iraq: The Uncounted
"...How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines...are left off the Pentagon's casualty count?
Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: 'More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq,'..."
Bonston Globe: Hawks push deep cuts in forces in Iraq
"A growing number of national security specialists who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein are moving to a position unthinkable even a few months ago: that the large US military presence is impeding stability as much as contributing to it and that the United States should begin major reductions in troops beginning early next year..."
The Miami Herald: Now outspoken, Cronkite rips Bush's record
"What America needs right now, legendary TV anchor Walter Cronkite said Thursday, is a new election -- and, he warned a laughing press conference full of reporters, he wasn't kidding.
'That's not entirely a joke,'' Cronkite said solemnly, arguing that the Bush administration has spent itself into ruin while embroiling the country in a war that will eventually make public revulsion to the war in Vietnam look 'like peanuts,'..."
The Right to Privacy:
AP: Bill gives lawmakers access to tax returns
"Congress passed legislation Saturday giving two committee chairman and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said it was all a mistake and would be swiftly repealed..."
The Environment:
Ed Marston: Colorado Snubs Coal for Renewables
San Francisco Chronicle: Damming Dissent
Bush Tax Policy and the 'Poor' Millionaire:
Michelle Goldberg: More Relief for Struggling Millionaires
"Liberal policy wonks - and even some who aren't so liberal - did a double take when they read the new tax plan floated by the Bush administration in the Washington Post on Thursday. Was the White House really suggesting eliminating incentives for employers to offer their employees health insurance plans? Was it really proposing to shift the country's tax burden even further onto states that didn't vote for Bush, like New York and Massachusetts?
It was.
The Post reported that according to White House advisors, the Bush administration 'plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capital gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth.'
The plan would further shift the tax burden off of people whose money comes from interest and investments - the very rich - a prospect that liberals find disheartening but not surprising. But what really caught financial experts' attention was the next paragraph, which explained how
Bush intended to pay for these tax cuts.
'The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral,' the Post explained. 'To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said,'..."
The Bush Cabinet 'Makeover'
LA Times: A New Hawk in Bush's Inner Circle, Arms Exec Leads Army
"Stephen J. Hadley, who President Bush picked Tuesday to be his next national security advisor, has risen to influence as the most low-key member of the powerful, hawkish group that has shaped U.S. foreign policy over the last four years.
In contrast to Condoleezza Rice - whom Bush nominated to become secretary of State - Hadley labored mostly behind the scenes in his role as deputy national security advisor.
Because of Hadley's strong ties to Rice and to Vice President Dick Cheney, another former boss, his selection appeared to signal that Bush was looking to further consolidate foreign policy decisions in the hands of his inner circle. Friends and analysts predicted that the 57-year-old lawyer would help the president manage those choices, rather than try to accumulate influence for himself..."
Counting the Votes:
Salon.com - Greg Palast and Farhad Manjoo: Presidential Debate
CBS News: Iraq: The Uncounted
"...How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines...are left off the Pentagon's casualty count?
Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: 'More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq,'..."
Bonston Globe: Hawks push deep cuts in forces in Iraq
"A growing number of national security specialists who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein are moving to a position unthinkable even a few months ago: that the large US military presence is impeding stability as much as contributing to it and that the United States should begin major reductions in troops beginning early next year..."
The Miami Herald: Now outspoken, Cronkite rips Bush's record
"What America needs right now, legendary TV anchor Walter Cronkite said Thursday, is a new election -- and, he warned a laughing press conference full of reporters, he wasn't kidding.
'That's not entirely a joke,'' Cronkite said solemnly, arguing that the Bush administration has spent itself into ruin while embroiling the country in a war that will eventually make public revulsion to the war in Vietnam look 'like peanuts,'..."
The Right to Privacy:
AP: Bill gives lawmakers access to tax returns
"Congress passed legislation Saturday giving two committee chairman and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said it was all a mistake and would be swiftly repealed..."
The Environment:
Ed Marston: Colorado Snubs Coal for Renewables
San Francisco Chronicle: Damming Dissent
Bush Tax Policy and the 'Poor' Millionaire:
Michelle Goldberg: More Relief for Struggling Millionaires
"Liberal policy wonks - and even some who aren't so liberal - did a double take when they read the new tax plan floated by the Bush administration in the Washington Post on Thursday. Was the White House really suggesting eliminating incentives for employers to offer their employees health insurance plans? Was it really proposing to shift the country's tax burden even further onto states that didn't vote for Bush, like New York and Massachusetts?
It was.
The Post reported that according to White House advisors, the Bush administration 'plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capital gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth.'
The plan would further shift the tax burden off of people whose money comes from interest and investments - the very rich - a prospect that liberals find disheartening but not surprising. But what really caught financial experts' attention was the next paragraph, which explained how
Bush intended to pay for these tax cuts.
'The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral,' the Post explained. 'To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said,'..."
The Bush Cabinet 'Makeover'
LA Times: A New Hawk in Bush's Inner Circle, Arms Exec Leads Army
"Stephen J. Hadley, who President Bush picked Tuesday to be his next national security advisor, has risen to influence as the most low-key member of the powerful, hawkish group that has shaped U.S. foreign policy over the last four years.
In contrast to Condoleezza Rice - whom Bush nominated to become secretary of State - Hadley labored mostly behind the scenes in his role as deputy national security advisor.
Because of Hadley's strong ties to Rice and to Vice President Dick Cheney, another former boss, his selection appeared to signal that Bush was looking to further consolidate foreign policy decisions in the hands of his inner circle. Friends and analysts predicted that the 57-year-old lawyer would help the president manage those choices, rather than try to accumulate influence for himself..."
Counting the Votes:
Salon.com - Greg Palast and Farhad Manjoo: Presidential Debate
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Iran, Next in the Neo-Conservatives' Sights:
New York Times Editorial: Groundhog Day
"Stop us if you've heard this one before. The Bush administration creates a false sense of urgency about a nuclear menace from a Middle Eastern country. Hard-liners talk about that country's connections to terrorists. They portray European diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions as a feckless attempt to appease a rogue nation whose word can never be trusted anyway. Secretary of State Colin Powell makes ominous-sounding warnings about new intelligence, which turns out to be dubious.
That is how President Bush rushed the country into an unnecessary conflict with Iraq in his first term, and we have been seeing alarming signs of that approach all week on Iran...
...Puzzlement turned to alarm yesterday when The Washington Post reported that Mr. Powell's comments were based on unverified information that had been brought to the United States by a previously unknown source whose reliability and authenticity had not yet been vetted. That certainly did bring back old memories - of Mr. Powell assuring the world that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, based on fanciful intelligence reports about aluminum tubes.
Steven Weisman of The Times reported that administration hawks were also talking about fresh intelligence on Iran's support for Hezbollah, which the world has known about for decades, and Iran's support for insurgents in Iraq, another old story. The hawks seem to be already starting to throw cold water on the prospects for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear problem while trying to open the door to contemplating a military option. An administration official told The Times that Mr. Powell was trying to avoid meeting with the Iranian foreign minister at a conference both men are to attend in Egypt next week.
Small wonder, then, that the Europeans started to accuse Washington of trying to undermine diplomacy with Iran, just as the Bush administration thwarted their efforts to resume the U.N. inspections of Iraq - inspections that we now know had been highly effective.
Iran has long been a target of the hawks in the administration, who are undoubtedly feeling their oats after the election. But we hope that President Bush has learned enough from the Iraq adventure to understand the dangers of using flawed intelligence to create a false sense of urgency about a national security threat..."
Counting the Votes:
Thom Hartmann: 'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
"...'We caught the whole thing on videotape,' she said. 'I don't think you'll ever see anything like this - Bev Harris having a tug of war with an election worker over a bag of garbage, and he held onto it and she pulled on it, and it split right open, spilling out those poll tapes. They were throwing away our democracy, and Bev wasn't going to let them do it,'..."
Iraq:
Greg Palast: Falluja Arithmetic Lesson
New York Times Editorial: Groundhog Day
"Stop us if you've heard this one before. The Bush administration creates a false sense of urgency about a nuclear menace from a Middle Eastern country. Hard-liners talk about that country's connections to terrorists. They portray European diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions as a feckless attempt to appease a rogue nation whose word can never be trusted anyway. Secretary of State Colin Powell makes ominous-sounding warnings about new intelligence, which turns out to be dubious.
That is how President Bush rushed the country into an unnecessary conflict with Iraq in his first term, and we have been seeing alarming signs of that approach all week on Iran...
...Puzzlement turned to alarm yesterday when The Washington Post reported that Mr. Powell's comments were based on unverified information that had been brought to the United States by a previously unknown source whose reliability and authenticity had not yet been vetted. That certainly did bring back old memories - of Mr. Powell assuring the world that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, based on fanciful intelligence reports about aluminum tubes.
Steven Weisman of The Times reported that administration hawks were also talking about fresh intelligence on Iran's support for Hezbollah, which the world has known about for decades, and Iran's support for insurgents in Iraq, another old story. The hawks seem to be already starting to throw cold water on the prospects for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear problem while trying to open the door to contemplating a military option. An administration official told The Times that Mr. Powell was trying to avoid meeting with the Iranian foreign minister at a conference both men are to attend in Egypt next week.
Small wonder, then, that the Europeans started to accuse Washington of trying to undermine diplomacy with Iran, just as the Bush administration thwarted their efforts to resume the U.N. inspections of Iraq - inspections that we now know had been highly effective.
Iran has long been a target of the hawks in the administration, who are undoubtedly feeling their oats after the election. But we hope that President Bush has learned enough from the Iraq adventure to understand the dangers of using flawed intelligence to create a false sense of urgency about a national security threat..."
Counting the Votes:
Thom Hartmann: 'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
"...'We caught the whole thing on videotape,' she said. 'I don't think you'll ever see anything like this - Bev Harris having a tug of war with an election worker over a bag of garbage, and he held onto it and she pulled on it, and it split right open, spilling out those poll tapes. They were throwing away our democracy, and Bev wasn't going to let them do it,'..."
Iraq:
Greg Palast: Falluja Arithmetic Lesson
Friday, November 19, 2004
Counting [Or Not Counting] The Votes:
Alan Gilbert: Corrupt Before a Vote was Cast
"...Alone among democracies, in the United States, election officials - Secretaries of State – are partisan. Even so, one would think that the Glenda Hoods, Kenneth Blackwells and Donetta Davidsons would be concerned to do their jobs: to uphold the transparency of the right to vote. But in adopting touch screen machines with no paper record, they did the opposite. Companies such as Diebold, Electr onic Systems and Software and Sequoia Voting Systems gave 43% of the budget of the National Association of Secretaries of State (New York Times, September 12, 2004). They took the Secretaries to dinners and on cruises. Further, they provide 'revolving door' employment. In 2003, the California Secretary of State Bill Jones becomes a consultant to Sequoia; his assistant secretary became an employee. Former Secretaries from Florida and Georgia have signed on with ES&S and Diebold.
Internationally, fair elections are understood to be administered by nonpartisan officials. Observers who had seen the use of voting machines in Venezuela – much attacked by the Bush administration – commented that they were fair and transparent compared to the United States: 'The observers said they had less access to polls [in the US] than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no country had such a complex national election system.' (Thomas Crampton, 'Global Monitors Find Faults,' International Herald Tribune, November 3, 2004). In the last two American Presidential elections, the Republicans, who dominate all branches of government, have tarnished the reputation of the United States as a democracy. When foreigners and many Americans look on the elections with horror – that no one can get a true count of the vote because officials blocked it from the outset – no reasonable response can be made. As one computer expert from Stanford, David Dill, invoked in Schwartz’s article, suggests, a supposed lack of problems was 'just a matter of luck.' If the fix was not in, there is no way to show it. The only proof that the officials were honorable would have been if George Bush had lost.
Two facts about the vote counting itself also point, on the face of it, to the theft of the November 2nd election. First, in the swing states of Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Iowa, the exit polls all pointed to a Kerry landslide. Taken among samples of actual voters, these polls are comparatively reliable. They have only been 'wrong' one other time in modern history – in Florida in 2000. But they were not wrong then. Had 50,000 mainly black voters not been wrongly removed as putative 'felons' from the rolls and 179,855 votes been declared 'spoiled' by Secretary of State Katharine Harris, Gore would have won. Like a canary in a mine, the exit polls are a warning of danger. In the face of the exit polls, faith in computerized voting with no paper record – along with company secrecy about the codes the machines use and no independent review - is bizarre. Second, in Gahanna Precinct, Franklin County, Ohio with 638 registered voters, a machine recorded 4,238 votes for George Bush – a 4,000 vote differential. Bush’s 'lead' in Ohio is now officially 132,000. But no errors appear in the direction of John Kerry. By no random process can errors benefit only one candidate..."
UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' for Florida E-Vote Count
"Today the University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team released a statistical study - the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting - reporting irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods - what the team says can be deemed a 'smoke alarm.' Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance - the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team formally disclosed results of the study at a press conference today at the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center, where they called on Florida voting officials to investigate..."
Alan Gilbert: Corrupt Before a Vote was Cast
"...Alone among democracies, in the United States, election officials - Secretaries of State – are partisan. Even so, one would think that the Glenda Hoods, Kenneth Blackwells and Donetta Davidsons would be concerned to do their jobs: to uphold the transparency of the right to vote. But in adopting touch screen machines with no paper record, they did the opposite. Companies such as Diebold, Electr onic Systems and Software and Sequoia Voting Systems gave 43% of the budget of the National Association of Secretaries of State (New York Times, September 12, 2004). They took the Secretaries to dinners and on cruises. Further, they provide 'revolving door' employment. In 2003, the California Secretary of State Bill Jones becomes a consultant to Sequoia; his assistant secretary became an employee. Former Secretaries from Florida and Georgia have signed on with ES&S and Diebold.
Internationally, fair elections are understood to be administered by nonpartisan officials. Observers who had seen the use of voting machines in Venezuela – much attacked by the Bush administration – commented that they were fair and transparent compared to the United States: 'The observers said they had less access to polls [in the US] than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no country had such a complex national election system.' (Thomas Crampton, 'Global Monitors Find Faults,' International Herald Tribune, November 3, 2004). In the last two American Presidential elections, the Republicans, who dominate all branches of government, have tarnished the reputation of the United States as a democracy. When foreigners and many Americans look on the elections with horror – that no one can get a true count of the vote because officials blocked it from the outset – no reasonable response can be made. As one computer expert from Stanford, David Dill, invoked in Schwartz’s article, suggests, a supposed lack of problems was 'just a matter of luck.' If the fix was not in, there is no way to show it. The only proof that the officials were honorable would have been if George Bush had lost.
Two facts about the vote counting itself also point, on the face of it, to the theft of the November 2nd election. First, in the swing states of Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Iowa, the exit polls all pointed to a Kerry landslide. Taken among samples of actual voters, these polls are comparatively reliable. They have only been 'wrong' one other time in modern history – in Florida in 2000. But they were not wrong then. Had 50,000 mainly black voters not been wrongly removed as putative 'felons' from the rolls and 179,855 votes been declared 'spoiled' by Secretary of State Katharine Harris, Gore would have won. Like a canary in a mine, the exit polls are a warning of danger. In the face of the exit polls, faith in computerized voting with no paper record – along with company secrecy about the codes the machines use and no independent review - is bizarre. Second, in Gahanna Precinct, Franklin County, Ohio with 638 registered voters, a machine recorded 4,238 votes for George Bush – a 4,000 vote differential. Bush’s 'lead' in Ohio is now officially 132,000. But no errors appear in the direction of John Kerry. By no random process can errors benefit only one candidate..."
UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' for Florida E-Vote Count
"Today the University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team released a statistical study - the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting - reporting irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods - what the team says can be deemed a 'smoke alarm.' Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance - the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team formally disclosed results of the study at a press conference today at the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center, where they called on Florida voting officials to investigate..."
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
In Violation of The Convention Against Torture:
Sunday Times (London) - U.S. Operating Secret 'Torture Flights'
"The Sunday Times of London has obtained evidence that the US government is leasing a special Gulfstream Jet to transport detained suspects to other nations that routinely use torture in their prisons. Logs for the airplane show the Pentagon and CIA have used the plane more than 300 times and dropped off detainees in Syria, Egypt and Uzbekistan. The Gulfstream and a similarly anonymous-looking Boeing 737 are hired by American agents from Premier Executive Transport Services, a private company in Massachusetts.
Analysis of the plane's flight plans, covering more than two years, shows that it always departs from Washington DC. It has flown to a total of 49 destinations outside the US, including the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba and other US military bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.
Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films. The US plane is not used just for carrying prisoners but also appears to be at the disposal of defense and intelligence officials on assignments from Washington..."
Bush Cabinet Changes:
Robert Scheer: The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup
"...incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In fact, despite calls for their resignations - from the former head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, among others - the neocon gang is thriving. They have not been held responsible for the '16 words' about yellowcake, the rise and fall of Ahmad Chalabi, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the post-invasion looting of Iraq's munitions stores and the disastrous elimination of the Iraqi armed forces..."
If the law doesn't protect the people it 'should,' just change it...
AP: House GOP Changes Rules to Protect DeLay
"House Republicans approved a party rules change Wednesday that could allow Majority leader Tom DeLay to retain his leadership post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury on state political corruption charges.
By a voice vote, and with a handful of lawmakers voicing opposition, the House Republican Conference decided that a party committee of several dozen members would review any felony indictment of a party leader and recommend at that time whether the leader should step aside.
The current party rule in this area requires House Republican leaders and the heads of the various committees to relinquish their positions if indicted for a crime that could bring a prison term of at least two years. It makes no distinction between a federal and state indictment. Three of DeLay's political associates already have been indicted by that Texas grand jury..."
Sunday Times (London) - U.S. Operating Secret 'Torture Flights'
"The Sunday Times of London has obtained evidence that the US government is leasing a special Gulfstream Jet to transport detained suspects to other nations that routinely use torture in their prisons. Logs for the airplane show the Pentagon and CIA have used the plane more than 300 times and dropped off detainees in Syria, Egypt and Uzbekistan. The Gulfstream and a similarly anonymous-looking Boeing 737 are hired by American agents from Premier Executive Transport Services, a private company in Massachusetts.
Analysis of the plane's flight plans, covering more than two years, shows that it always departs from Washington DC. It has flown to a total of 49 destinations outside the US, including the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba and other US military bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.
Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films. The US plane is not used just for carrying prisoners but also appears to be at the disposal of defense and intelligence officials on assignments from Washington..."
Bush Cabinet Changes:
Robert Scheer: The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup
"...incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In fact, despite calls for their resignations - from the former head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, among others - the neocon gang is thriving. They have not been held responsible for the '16 words' about yellowcake, the rise and fall of Ahmad Chalabi, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the post-invasion looting of Iraq's munitions stores and the disastrous elimination of the Iraqi armed forces..."
If the law doesn't protect the people it 'should,' just change it...
AP: House GOP Changes Rules to Protect DeLay
"House Republicans approved a party rules change Wednesday that could allow Majority leader Tom DeLay to retain his leadership post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury on state political corruption charges.
By a voice vote, and with a handful of lawmakers voicing opposition, the House Republican Conference decided that a party committee of several dozen members would review any felony indictment of a party leader and recommend at that time whether the leader should step aside.
The current party rule in this area requires House Republican leaders and the heads of the various committees to relinquish their positions if indicted for a crime that could bring a prison term of at least two years. It makes no distinction between a federal and state indictment. Three of DeLay's political associates already have been indicted by that Texas grand jury..."
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Andrew O'Hehir: Welcome to the New Cold War
"It's Chirac vs. Cheney, SUVs vs. minicars, and pommes frites vs. freedom fries in the new transatlantic culture war. But here's what you don't know: In the global conflict for moral and economic supremacy, Europe is winning..."
"It's Chirac vs. Cheney, SUVs vs. minicars, and pommes frites vs. freedom fries in the new transatlantic culture war. But here's what you don't know: In the global conflict for moral and economic supremacy, Europe is winning..."
Monday, November 15, 2004
The So-Called War on Terror:
Newsday: CIA plans to purge its agency
"The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.
'The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House,' said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. 'Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda.'
One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow.
But the former senior CIA official said that the White House 'doesn't want Steve Kappes to reconsider his resignation. That might be the spin they put on it, but they want him out,'..."
AP: Ashcroft Condemns Judges Who Question Bush
"Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.
In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called 'a profoundly disturbing trend' among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.
'The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war,' Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group.
The Justice Department announced this week it would seek to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who the government contends was Osama bin Laden's driver.
Robertson halted Hamdan's trial by military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rejecting the Bush administration's position that the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war do not apply to al-Qaida members because they are not soldiers of a true state and do not fight by international norms.
Without mentioning that case specifically, Ashcroft criticized rulings he said found 'expansive private rights in treaties where they never existed' that run counter to the broad discretionary powers given the president by the Constitution.
'Courts are not equipped to execute the law. They are not accountable to the people,' Ashcroft said.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, compared Ashcroft's remarks to those the attorney general previously made indicating that opponents of administration counterterrorism policies were assisting terrorists.
'It's entirely in line with his overt hostility to dissent, debate and judicial review,' Romero said..."
Counting the Votes:
Colin Shea: I Smell a Rat
"I smell a rat. It has that distinctive and all-too-familiar odor of the species Republicanus floridius. We got a nasty bite from this pest four years ago and never quite recovered. Symptoms of a long-term infection are becoming distressingly apparent...
...The intimation, clearly, is fraud. Ballots are scanned; results are fed into precinct computers; these are sent to a county-wide database, whose results are fed into the statewide electoral totals. At any point after physical ballots become databases, the system is vulnerable to external hackers..."
Steven F. Freeman: The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy
"How could the exit polls in this year's presidential election have diverged so drastically from the results that election officials and the media announced?
Professor Steven Freeman, a statistician at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a disturbing answer. Looking at the exit polls and announced results in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, he concludes that the odds against such an accidental discrepancy in all three states together was 250 million to one.
'As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error.'
Read Dr. Freeman's well-reasoned, well-written argument, and make up your own mind..."
Newsday: CIA plans to purge its agency
"The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.
'The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House,' said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. 'Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda.'
One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow.
But the former senior CIA official said that the White House 'doesn't want Steve Kappes to reconsider his resignation. That might be the spin they put on it, but they want him out,'..."
AP: Ashcroft Condemns Judges Who Question Bush
"Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.
In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called 'a profoundly disturbing trend' among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.
'The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war,' Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group.
The Justice Department announced this week it would seek to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who the government contends was Osama bin Laden's driver.
Robertson halted Hamdan's trial by military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rejecting the Bush administration's position that the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war do not apply to al-Qaida members because they are not soldiers of a true state and do not fight by international norms.
Without mentioning that case specifically, Ashcroft criticized rulings he said found 'expansive private rights in treaties where they never existed' that run counter to the broad discretionary powers given the president by the Constitution.
'Courts are not equipped to execute the law. They are not accountable to the people,' Ashcroft said.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, compared Ashcroft's remarks to those the attorney general previously made indicating that opponents of administration counterterrorism policies were assisting terrorists.
'It's entirely in line with his overt hostility to dissent, debate and judicial review,' Romero said..."
Counting the Votes:
Colin Shea: I Smell a Rat
"I smell a rat. It has that distinctive and all-too-familiar odor of the species Republicanus floridius. We got a nasty bite from this pest four years ago and never quite recovered. Symptoms of a long-term infection are becoming distressingly apparent...
...The intimation, clearly, is fraud. Ballots are scanned; results are fed into precinct computers; these are sent to a county-wide database, whose results are fed into the statewide electoral totals. At any point after physical ballots become databases, the system is vulnerable to external hackers..."
Steven F. Freeman: The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy
"How could the exit polls in this year's presidential election have diverged so drastically from the results that election officials and the media announced?
Professor Steven Freeman, a statistician at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a disturbing answer. Looking at the exit polls and announced results in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, he concludes that the odds against such an accidental discrepancy in all three states together was 250 million to one.
'As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error.'
Read Dr. Freeman's well-reasoned, well-written argument, and make up your own mind..."
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Counting the Votes:
Greg Palast: KERRY WON OHIO - JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS
"This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his State Senate President, 'The possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity.' Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB. But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-holes: 'spoiled' ballots and 'provisional' ballots.
American democracy has a dark little secret. In a typical presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the garbage, marked 'spoiled' and not counted. A dive into the electoral dumpster reveals something special about these votes left to rot. In a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that 54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans. And Florida, Heaven help us, is typical. Nationwide, the number of Black votes 'disappeared' into the spoiled pile is approximately one million. The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly Democratic demographic.
Ohio Republicans, simultaneously in charge of both the Bush-Cheney get-out-the-vote drive and the state's vote-counting rules, doggedly and systematically insured the spoilage pile would be as high as the White House..."
AlterNet: A Legitimate Recount Effort in Ohio
"Efforts to launch an official statewide recount of the Ohio presidential vote are underway. While it's unclear if a recount will result in a Kerry victory, it's likely to highlight many flaws in Ohio elections that may have tilted results toward Republicans and against Democrats.
Common Cause of Ohio and the Alliance for Democracy, a progressive coalition, Thursday announced they were launching a recount campaign for Ohio. Columbus, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who represents both groups, said both the Green Party and Libertarian Party presidential candidates would seek a recount if the $110,000 filing fee could be raised. 'Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy are not partisan. The purpose of the recount is to verify the honesty of the process,' Arnebeck said. 'That is in the interest of anyone who would be declared the winner,'..."
Donna Britt: Worst Voter Error Is Apathy toward Irregularities
"Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Informed that I was writing about voter disenfranchisement, a Democratic friend admitted, 'I'm trying not to care about that.' I understand. Less than two weeks after a bruising election in a nation in which it's unfashionable to overtly care about anything, it's annoying of me even to notice.
But citizens who insist, election after election, that each vote is sacred and then shrug at hundreds of credible reports that honest-to-God votes were suppressed and discouraged aren't just being hypocritical.
They're telling the millions who never vote because 'it doesn't matter anyway' that they're the smart ones..."
Bush's Miserable Choice for AG:
Marjorie Cohn: The Quaint Mr. Gonzales
"...Notwithstanding his mild-mannered appearance, Gonzales is the iron fist in the velvet glove. Gonzales, whom Bush affectionately calls 'mi abogado' ('my lawyer'), wrote one of the most outrageous torture memos. On January 25, 2002, Gonzales advised Bush that 'the war on terrorism is a new kind of war, a new paradigm [that] renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitation on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders some of its provisions quaint.'
Oh really? The 'quaint' Geneva Conventions are treaties ratified by the United States, and therefore part of the supreme law of the land under our Constitution.
Gonzales also provided Bush with novel defenses against potential war crimes prosecutions that might result from torturing prisoners captured in Afghanistan. The 1996 War Crimes Act says that grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions are war crimes. Thus, the definition of war crimes includes torture, inhuman treatment, and willful killing, as well as outrages against personal dignity. Gonzales advised Bush that he could avoid allegations of war crimes by simply declaring that Geneva doesn't apply to the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
When Colin Powell saw Gonzales's memo, he reportedly 'hit the roof.' Powell wrote a counter-memo to Gonzales and Condoleezza Rice, warning of the immense damage this could do to the United States - legally, politically, militarily, diplomatically, and morally. To declare that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, Powell wrote, 'will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice in supporting the Geneva conventions, and undermine the protection of the law of war for our troops, both in this specific conflict and in general.'
Powell was right. The Geneva Conventions contain no loopholes that would allow the torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners. Even if a captive did not qualify for prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention, he would be protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during wartime. And article 3 of both conventions prohibits torture, and humiliating and degrading treatment against anyone who is no longer fighting. It is well-established that article 3 applies to international, as well as internal, conflicts.
Bush didn't listen to Powell. On February 7, 2002, Bush declared that Geneva would not apply to Al Qaeda. He added that he had 'the authority to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan,' but declined to exercise it at that time. Geneva 'will apply to our present conflict with the Taliban,' Bush said. But then, in a striking example of double-speak, he determined they were 'unlawful combatants,' ineligible for hearings to decide whether they were prisoners-of-war under the Third Geneva Convention. (Under the terms of Geneva, only a 'competent tribunal' can make that determination). Bush also proclaimed that article 3 of Geneva didn't apply to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban prisoners..."
Greg Palast: KERRY WON OHIO - JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS
"This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his State Senate President, 'The possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity.' Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB. But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-holes: 'spoiled' ballots and 'provisional' ballots.
American democracy has a dark little secret. In a typical presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the garbage, marked 'spoiled' and not counted. A dive into the electoral dumpster reveals something special about these votes left to rot. In a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that 54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans. And Florida, Heaven help us, is typical. Nationwide, the number of Black votes 'disappeared' into the spoiled pile is approximately one million. The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly Democratic demographic.
Ohio Republicans, simultaneously in charge of both the Bush-Cheney get-out-the-vote drive and the state's vote-counting rules, doggedly and systematically insured the spoilage pile would be as high as the White House..."
AlterNet: A Legitimate Recount Effort in Ohio
"Efforts to launch an official statewide recount of the Ohio presidential vote are underway. While it's unclear if a recount will result in a Kerry victory, it's likely to highlight many flaws in Ohio elections that may have tilted results toward Republicans and against Democrats.
Common Cause of Ohio and the Alliance for Democracy, a progressive coalition, Thursday announced they were launching a recount campaign for Ohio. Columbus, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who represents both groups, said both the Green Party and Libertarian Party presidential candidates would seek a recount if the $110,000 filing fee could be raised. 'Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy are not partisan. The purpose of the recount is to verify the honesty of the process,' Arnebeck said. 'That is in the interest of anyone who would be declared the winner,'..."
Donna Britt: Worst Voter Error Is Apathy toward Irregularities
"Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Informed that I was writing about voter disenfranchisement, a Democratic friend admitted, 'I'm trying not to care about that.' I understand. Less than two weeks after a bruising election in a nation in which it's unfashionable to overtly care about anything, it's annoying of me even to notice.
But citizens who insist, election after election, that each vote is sacred and then shrug at hundreds of credible reports that honest-to-God votes were suppressed and discouraged aren't just being hypocritical.
They're telling the millions who never vote because 'it doesn't matter anyway' that they're the smart ones..."
Bush's Miserable Choice for AG:
Marjorie Cohn: The Quaint Mr. Gonzales
"...Notwithstanding his mild-mannered appearance, Gonzales is the iron fist in the velvet glove. Gonzales, whom Bush affectionately calls 'mi abogado' ('my lawyer'), wrote one of the most outrageous torture memos. On January 25, 2002, Gonzales advised Bush that 'the war on terrorism is a new kind of war, a new paradigm [that] renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitation on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders some of its provisions quaint.'
Oh really? The 'quaint' Geneva Conventions are treaties ratified by the United States, and therefore part of the supreme law of the land under our Constitution.
Gonzales also provided Bush with novel defenses against potential war crimes prosecutions that might result from torturing prisoners captured in Afghanistan. The 1996 War Crimes Act says that grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions are war crimes. Thus, the definition of war crimes includes torture, inhuman treatment, and willful killing, as well as outrages against personal dignity. Gonzales advised Bush that he could avoid allegations of war crimes by simply declaring that Geneva doesn't apply to the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
When Colin Powell saw Gonzales's memo, he reportedly 'hit the roof.' Powell wrote a counter-memo to Gonzales and Condoleezza Rice, warning of the immense damage this could do to the United States - legally, politically, militarily, diplomatically, and morally. To declare that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, Powell wrote, 'will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice in supporting the Geneva conventions, and undermine the protection of the law of war for our troops, both in this specific conflict and in general.'
Powell was right. The Geneva Conventions contain no loopholes that would allow the torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners. Even if a captive did not qualify for prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention, he would be protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during wartime. And article 3 of both conventions prohibits torture, and humiliating and degrading treatment against anyone who is no longer fighting. It is well-established that article 3 applies to international, as well as internal, conflicts.
Bush didn't listen to Powell. On February 7, 2002, Bush declared that Geneva would not apply to Al Qaeda. He added that he had 'the authority to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan,' but declined to exercise it at that time. Geneva 'will apply to our present conflict with the Taliban,' Bush said. But then, in a striking example of double-speak, he determined they were 'unlawful combatants,' ineligible for hearings to decide whether they were prisoners-of-war under the Third Geneva Convention. (Under the terms of Geneva, only a 'competent tribunal' can make that determination). Bush also proclaimed that article 3 of Geneva didn't apply to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban prisoners..."
Friday, November 12, 2004
Media and the Election:
Salon.com The Media Gives Bush a Mandate
"With a dead-even race that featured nearly endless possible Electoral College configurations, Election Day promised to bring a certain number of surprises. But perhaps none was as unexpected as the notion that President Bush, the most conservative and polarizing president of his generation, would come through the other side of the campaign as a moderate with a mandate. Yet in the days immediately following the historically close vote, that's how the political press corps often portrayed the president..."
Ramming Through the ANWAR Vote:
Reuters: Abraham Sees Congress Backing Alaskan Oil Drilling
"...Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who chairs the Senate's energy committee, said he will have enough votes early next year to tack on language that would allow the start of ANWR exploration to the annual budget bill that funds the federal government.
'With oil hovering at $50 a barrel, and likely to stay there for several months, the market mandates congressional action. We can develop ANWR without harming the environment or the wildlife. Now is the time to do that,' Domenici said on Wednesday in a statement.
Only a simple majority of 51 Senate votes is needed to open ANWR by way of the budget bill, which cannot be filibustered. In the past, a coalition of Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans have blocked ANWR drilling by preventing the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster on energy legislation..."
Freedom of Speech in the So-Called War on Terror:
Reuters: CIA Critic of U.S. War on Terror Resigns
"A CIA analyst who wrote a book that criticized the U.S. war on terror has resigned from the spy agency after it effectively banned him from publicly discussing his views, his publicist said on Thursday.
Michael Scheuer, whose book 'Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror' was signed as 'anonymous' and published this summer, will resign effective Friday after 22 years at the Central Intelligence Agency.
In a statement, Scheuer said the CIA had not forced him to resign, 'but I have concluded that there has not been adequate national debate over the nature of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the forces he leads and inspires, and the nature and dimensions of intelligence reform needed to address that threat.'
He intends to speak to the media over the next several weeks, including an appearance on the CBS show '60 Minutes' on Sunday..."
Salon.com The Media Gives Bush a Mandate
"With a dead-even race that featured nearly endless possible Electoral College configurations, Election Day promised to bring a certain number of surprises. But perhaps none was as unexpected as the notion that President Bush, the most conservative and polarizing president of his generation, would come through the other side of the campaign as a moderate with a mandate. Yet in the days immediately following the historically close vote, that's how the political press corps often portrayed the president..."
Ramming Through the ANWAR Vote:
Reuters: Abraham Sees Congress Backing Alaskan Oil Drilling
"...Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who chairs the Senate's energy committee, said he will have enough votes early next year to tack on language that would allow the start of ANWR exploration to the annual budget bill that funds the federal government.
'With oil hovering at $50 a barrel, and likely to stay there for several months, the market mandates congressional action. We can develop ANWR without harming the environment or the wildlife. Now is the time to do that,' Domenici said on Wednesday in a statement.
Only a simple majority of 51 Senate votes is needed to open ANWR by way of the budget bill, which cannot be filibustered. In the past, a coalition of Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans have blocked ANWR drilling by preventing the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster on energy legislation..."
Freedom of Speech in the So-Called War on Terror:
Reuters: CIA Critic of U.S. War on Terror Resigns
"A CIA analyst who wrote a book that criticized the U.S. war on terror has resigned from the spy agency after it effectively banned him from publicly discussing his views, his publicist said on Thursday.
Michael Scheuer, whose book 'Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror' was signed as 'anonymous' and published this summer, will resign effective Friday after 22 years at the Central Intelligence Agency.
In a statement, Scheuer said the CIA had not forced him to resign, 'but I have concluded that there has not been adequate national debate over the nature of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the forces he leads and inspires, and the nature and dimensions of intelligence reform needed to address that threat.'
He intends to speak to the media over the next several weeks, including an appearance on the CBS show '60 Minutes' on Sunday..."
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Waste, Fraud and Abuse - Funded By The American Taxpayer:
NY Times: Halliburton May Have Been Pressured by U.S. Diplomats to Disregard High Fuel Prices
"American diplomats pressured the Halliburton Company in late 2003 to keep using a Kuwaiti subcontractor to truck fuel into Iraq, despite evidence that the company was charging exorbitant prices, newly released State Department documents show.
The documents - a handful of e-mail messages and memorandums to and from American diplomats - raise yet more questions about the post-invasion fuel imports to Iraq, which are already the subject of federal inquiries into possible overbilling and fraud.
They indicate that the Kuwait government secretly demanded that only one company - a Kuwaiti company, Altanmia - be selected to handle fuel sales to Iraq. And they show behind-the-scenes efforts by the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority and the American Embassy in Kuwait to ensure that demand was met, both to speed delivery and foster Kuwaiti support in Iraq..."
The Law:
Please see the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Membership List for those Sentators who need your input about the suitability of Alberto Gonzales to be this nation's top law enforcement officer. His advice to the Bush Administration, as the White House Chief Council, was to ignore International Law and the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners in general and regarding their torture in particular. The President could not have made a worse appointment. His appointment should be rejected and he should be made to think very carefully about the tradition and intent of International Law (if he's capable).
NY Times: Halliburton May Have Been Pressured by U.S. Diplomats to Disregard High Fuel Prices
"American diplomats pressured the Halliburton Company in late 2003 to keep using a Kuwaiti subcontractor to truck fuel into Iraq, despite evidence that the company was charging exorbitant prices, newly released State Department documents show.
The documents - a handful of e-mail messages and memorandums to and from American diplomats - raise yet more questions about the post-invasion fuel imports to Iraq, which are already the subject of federal inquiries into possible overbilling and fraud.
They indicate that the Kuwait government secretly demanded that only one company - a Kuwaiti company, Altanmia - be selected to handle fuel sales to Iraq. And they show behind-the-scenes efforts by the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority and the American Embassy in Kuwait to ensure that demand was met, both to speed delivery and foster Kuwaiti support in Iraq..."
The Law:
Please see the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Membership List for those Sentators who need your input about the suitability of Alberto Gonzales to be this nation's top law enforcement officer. His advice to the Bush Administration, as the White House Chief Council, was to ignore International Law and the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners in general and regarding their torture in particular. The President could not have made a worse appointment. His appointment should be rejected and he should be made to think very carefully about the tradition and intent of International Law (if he's capable).
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Counting the Votes:
The Cincinnati Enquirer: Warren Co. defends lockdown decision
"Warren County officials, facing scrutiny of their decision to lock down the administration building on election night, say they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a '10' on a scale of 1 to 10.
The information, which Commissioner Pat South said was previously deemed confidential, is coming out a week after the public was barred from viewing the Warren County vote count. The Ohio Secretary of State's office doesn't know of any other county in the state to impose such a restriction.
County officials initially said they feared that having reporters and photographers present could interfere with the ballot counting. They subsequently cited homeland security concerns.
Now, they say an FBI agent told them that Warren County ranked a '10' on a terrorism scale. However, state and federal homeland security officials said Tuesday they were unaware of any specific threat against the county..."
The Role of Media in Elections:
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: New York Times Killed "Bush Bulge" Story
"Five days before the presidential election, the New York Times killed a story about the mysterious object George W. Bush wore on his back during the presidential debates, journalist Dave Lindorff reveals in an exclusive report on this week's CounterSpin, FAIR's weekly radio show. The spiked story included compelling photographic and scientific evidence that would have contradicted Bush's claim that the bulge on his back was just a matter of poor tailoring..."
Robert W. McChesney: On Media and the Election
"Perhaps the most important function our media serves is to provide voters with the information they need to make sound decisions in the voting booth. If people don't know what they're voting for, our democracy is in serious trouble.
Unfortunately, it appears that we're in serious trouble.
This election has been marked by a staggering amount of voter ignorance. Polls show that voters - especially Bush supporters - were grossly misinformed about their candidate's position on a broad range of issues. Surveying supporters of the President, a University of Maryland PIPA/ Knowledge Networks poll found:
72% still believe that there were WMD's in Iraq.
75% believe that Iraq was providing substantial support for Al Qaeda.
66% believe that Bush supports participation in the International Criminal Court.
72% believe that he supports the treaty banning land mines.
The catch? None of these statements are true...."
The Cincinnati Enquirer: Warren Co. defends lockdown decision
"Warren County officials, facing scrutiny of their decision to lock down the administration building on election night, say they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a '10' on a scale of 1 to 10.
The information, which Commissioner Pat South said was previously deemed confidential, is coming out a week after the public was barred from viewing the Warren County vote count. The Ohio Secretary of State's office doesn't know of any other county in the state to impose such a restriction.
County officials initially said they feared that having reporters and photographers present could interfere with the ballot counting. They subsequently cited homeland security concerns.
Now, they say an FBI agent told them that Warren County ranked a '10' on a terrorism scale. However, state and federal homeland security officials said Tuesday they were unaware of any specific threat against the county..."
The Role of Media in Elections:
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: New York Times Killed "Bush Bulge" Story
"Five days before the presidential election, the New York Times killed a story about the mysterious object George W. Bush wore on his back during the presidential debates, journalist Dave Lindorff reveals in an exclusive report on this week's CounterSpin, FAIR's weekly radio show. The spiked story included compelling photographic and scientific evidence that would have contradicted Bush's claim that the bulge on his back was just a matter of poor tailoring..."
Robert W. McChesney: On Media and the Election
"Perhaps the most important function our media serves is to provide voters with the information they need to make sound decisions in the voting booth. If people don't know what they're voting for, our democracy is in serious trouble.
Unfortunately, it appears that we're in serious trouble.
This election has been marked by a staggering amount of voter ignorance. Polls show that voters - especially Bush supporters - were grossly misinformed about their candidate's position on a broad range of issues. Surveying supporters of the President, a University of Maryland PIPA/ Knowledge Networks poll found:
72% still believe that there were WMD's in Iraq.
75% believe that Iraq was providing substantial support for Al Qaeda.
66% believe that Bush supports participation in the International Criminal Court.
72% believe that he supports the treaty banning land mines.
The catch? None of these statements are true...."
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Counting the Votes:
Consortium News: Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies: "George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable..."
Globalization:
Democracy Now! - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
"We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies..."
Consortium News: Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies: "George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable..."
Globalization:
Democracy Now! - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
"We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies..."
Monday, November 08, 2004
Counting the Votes:
William Rivers Pitt: Worse Than 2000: Tuesday's Electoral Disaster
Wired News: House Dems Seek Election Inquiry
"Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accounting Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections.
The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
NY Times: Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court
"...The [Supreme] court ruled 6 to 3 in June that the detainees had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court, saying that even though the base is outside the sovereign territory of the United States, federal judges have jurisdiction to consider petitions for writs of habeas corpus from those who argue that they are being unlawfully held.
The hearings here have come under heavy criticism because they do not meet the traditional standards of court proceedings. For one thing, the detainees are left to argue their cases for themselves, without assistance from lawyers.
The hearings, formally called combatant status review tribunals, were hurriedly devised and put into place just weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling. The administration, which has been battling to have the military retain as much control as possible over the detainees, told a federal court in Washington last week that the tribunals more than satisfy the Supreme Court ruling. The government argued that because of the tribunals, federal judges should reject the dozens of petitions they have received from defense lawyers asking them to intervene..."
The Militarization of Space:
The Guardian (UK) - US ready to put weapons in space
"America has begun preparing its next military objective - space. Documents reveal that the US Air Force has for the first time adopted a doctrine to establish 'space superiority'.
The new doctrine means that pre-emptive strikes against enemy satellites would become 'crucial steps in any military operation'. This week defence experts will attend a conference in London amid warnings that President Bush's re-election will pave the way to the arming of space.
Internal USAF documents reveal that seizing control of the 'final frontier' is deemed essential for modern warfare. Counterspace Operations reveals that destroying enemy satellites would improve the chance of victory. It states: 'Space superiority provides freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack. Space and air superiority are crucial first steps in any military operation,'..."
On Religion and Politics:
Gary Hart: When the Personal Shouldn't Be Political
"...As a candidate for public office, I chose not to place my beliefs in the center of my appeal for support because I am also a Jeffersonian; that is to say, I believe that one's religious beliefs - though they will and should affect one's outlook on public policy and life - are personal and that America is a secular, not a theocratic, republic. Because of this, it should concern us that declarations of 'faith' are quickly becoming a condition for seeking public office.
Declarations of 'faith' are abstractions that permit both voters and candidates to fill in the blanks with their own religious beliefs. There are two dangers here. One is the merging of church and state. The other is rank hypocrisy. Having claimed moral authority to achieve political victory, religious conservatives should be very careful, in their administration of the public trust, to live up to the standards they have claimed for themselves. They should also be called upon to address the teachings of Jesus and the prophets concerning care for the poor, the barriers that wealth presents to entering heaven, the blessings on the peacemakers, and the belief that no person should be left behind.
If we are to insert 'faith' into the public dialogue more directly and assertively, let's not be selective. Let's go all the way. Let's not just define 'faith' in terms of the law and judgment; let's define it also in terms of love, caring, forgiveness. Compassionate conservatives can believe social ills should be addressed by charity and the private sector; liberals can believe that the government has a role to play in correcting social injustice..."
William Rivers Pitt: Worse Than 2000: Tuesday's Electoral Disaster
Wired News: House Dems Seek Election Inquiry
"Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accounting Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections.
The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
NY Times: Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court
"...The [Supreme] court ruled 6 to 3 in June that the detainees had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court, saying that even though the base is outside the sovereign territory of the United States, federal judges have jurisdiction to consider petitions for writs of habeas corpus from those who argue that they are being unlawfully held.
The hearings here have come under heavy criticism because they do not meet the traditional standards of court proceedings. For one thing, the detainees are left to argue their cases for themselves, without assistance from lawyers.
The hearings, formally called combatant status review tribunals, were hurriedly devised and put into place just weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling. The administration, which has been battling to have the military retain as much control as possible over the detainees, told a federal court in Washington last week that the tribunals more than satisfy the Supreme Court ruling. The government argued that because of the tribunals, federal judges should reject the dozens of petitions they have received from defense lawyers asking them to intervene..."
The Militarization of Space:
The Guardian (UK) - US ready to put weapons in space
"America has begun preparing its next military objective - space. Documents reveal that the US Air Force has for the first time adopted a doctrine to establish 'space superiority'.
The new doctrine means that pre-emptive strikes against enemy satellites would become 'crucial steps in any military operation'. This week defence experts will attend a conference in London amid warnings that President Bush's re-election will pave the way to the arming of space.
Internal USAF documents reveal that seizing control of the 'final frontier' is deemed essential for modern warfare. Counterspace Operations reveals that destroying enemy satellites would improve the chance of victory. It states: 'Space superiority provides freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack. Space and air superiority are crucial first steps in any military operation,'..."
On Religion and Politics:
Gary Hart: When the Personal Shouldn't Be Political
"...As a candidate for public office, I chose not to place my beliefs in the center of my appeal for support because I am also a Jeffersonian; that is to say, I believe that one's religious beliefs - though they will and should affect one's outlook on public policy and life - are personal and that America is a secular, not a theocratic, republic. Because of this, it should concern us that declarations of 'faith' are quickly becoming a condition for seeking public office.
Declarations of 'faith' are abstractions that permit both voters and candidates to fill in the blanks with their own religious beliefs. There are two dangers here. One is the merging of church and state. The other is rank hypocrisy. Having claimed moral authority to achieve political victory, religious conservatives should be very careful, in their administration of the public trust, to live up to the standards they have claimed for themselves. They should also be called upon to address the teachings of Jesus and the prophets concerning care for the poor, the barriers that wealth presents to entering heaven, the blessings on the peacemakers, and the belief that no person should be left behind.
If we are to insert 'faith' into the public dialogue more directly and assertively, let's not be selective. Let's go all the way. Let's not just define 'faith' in terms of the law and judgment; let's define it also in terms of love, caring, forgiveness. Compassionate conservatives can believe social ills should be addressed by charity and the private sector; liberals can believe that the government has a role to play in correcting social injustice..."
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Thom Hartmann: Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked
Friday, November 05, 2004
Greg Palast: Kerry Won
"Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided - known as 'spoilage' in election jargon - because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palast's investigation suggests that if Ohio's discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots..."
"Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided - known as 'spoilage' in election jargon - because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palast's investigation suggests that if Ohio's discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots..."
AP: Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes
"An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365..."
AP: N.C. Computer Loses More Than 4,500 Votes
"More than 4,500 votes have been lost in one North Carolina county because officials believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did. Scattered other problems may change results in races around the state..."
"An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365..."
AP: N.C. Computer Loses More Than 4,500 Votes
"More than 4,500 votes have been lost in one North Carolina county because officials believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did. Scattered other problems may change results in races around the state..."
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
The Morning After Novemeber 2nd, 2004:
If Bush wins in the Electoral College, the GOP deserves only the most cynical congratulations for successfully using Karl Rove's politics of fear in this campaign, as they did in 2002, and for using social issues to convince middle- and lower-income Americans to vote against their own economic best interest. George Bush is very good at talking Christian, but walking corporate, and for the American electorate, it is what politicians say that seems to matter far more than what they do. Four years of the President's actions against clean water, air, his unilateral/imperialist/preemptive foreign policy, his non-fiscally-conservative deficit spending, and his shameless political payback to his 'base' in a time of economic recession, were wiped from the minds of voters who prefer to succumb to fear and the unholy alliance of 'Christian values' and raw corporate greed. What does this say about the ability of the American public to grasp complex issues, and more importantly, about the sources of information it uses to weigh these issues?
But who knows, Richard Nixon had to resign after his re-election for dirty tricks...
If Bush wins in the Electoral College, the GOP deserves only the most cynical congratulations for successfully using Karl Rove's politics of fear in this campaign, as they did in 2002, and for using social issues to convince middle- and lower-income Americans to vote against their own economic best interest. George Bush is very good at talking Christian, but walking corporate, and for the American electorate, it is what politicians say that seems to matter far more than what they do. Four years of the President's actions against clean water, air, his unilateral/imperialist/preemptive foreign policy, his non-fiscally-conservative deficit spending, and his shameless political payback to his 'base' in a time of economic recession, were wiped from the minds of voters who prefer to succumb to fear and the unholy alliance of 'Christian values' and raw corporate greed. What does this say about the ability of the American public to grasp complex issues, and more importantly, about the sources of information it uses to weigh these issues?
But who knows, Richard Nixon had to resign after his re-election for dirty tricks...
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
The Independent (UK) - Pentagon suppresses details of civilian casualties
"The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.
'Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time, General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military does collect casualty figures in Iraq,' said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. 'But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret.'
Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York and the London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the Pentagon's stance has confused its response to the latest study. 'The military is saying: 'We don't believe it, but because we don't collect figures, we can't comment,' he said.
'Mr Powell decided to keep the figures secret because of the controversy over body counts in Vietnam, but I think democracies need this information,'..."
"The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.
'Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time, General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military does collect casualty figures in Iraq,' said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. 'But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret.'
Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York and the London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the Pentagon's stance has confused its response to the latest study. 'The military is saying: 'We don't believe it, but because we don't collect figures, we can't comment,' he said.
'Mr Powell decided to keep the figures secret because of the controversy over body counts in Vietnam, but I think democracies need this information,'..."
Monday, November 01, 2004
Democracy Now! Headlines for November 1, 2004
"Dirty Tricks Reported Ahead Of Tuesday's Election
With one day until the presidential elections, reports are coming in across the country of efforts to confuse, intimidate and discourage voters from going to the polls. Ion Sancho, the supervisor of elections in Leon County in Florida, told the Washington Post, 'In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this.'
> In Florida thousands of students have learned that not only was their party registration switched to Republican but their home address was changed without their knowledge. This means that when they show up to vote at their local precinct, their names won't appear on the voting rolls.
> In Pittsburgh, fliers were handed out on what looked like county letterhead that claimed voting had been extended an extra day 'due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday.' The fliers said Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats should vote on Wednesday.
> In Wisconsin fliers purportedly from the a group calling itself the 'Milwaukee Black Voters League' told voters, 'If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election, If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you.'
> In South Carolina, a letter purportedly from the NAACP warned voters they can not vote if they have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child support.
Civil Rights Activists Sue Ohio To Block GOP Challenges
Meanwhile in Ohio, a pair of civil rights activists have filed a lawsuit to block the Republicans from challenging the eligibility of any voters at the polls tomorrow. The couple, Marian and Donald Spencer, said the Republicans are basing the challenges on a law dating back to the Jim Crow era that was originally aimed at disenfranchising black voters.
GA. Officials Throw Out GOP Challengers
In Georgia's Atkinson County, the Republicans attempted to challenge the voting eligibility of 78 percent of the county's registered Latino voters. But on Thursday the Board of Registrars dismissed the Republican complaint. The county attorney said, 'The challenges ... are legally insufficient because they are based solely on race,'..."
Greg Palast: Abused and conned in Florida
"An Observer [London] investigation in the United States has uncovered widespread allegations of electoral abuse, many of them going uninvestigated despite complaints of what would appear to be criminal attempts to manipulate voter lists.
The allegations, which come just two days before Americans go to the polls in one of the most tightly contested elections in a generation, threaten to plunge Tuesday's count into a legal minefield and overshadow even the elections of 2000...
...One of the more serious claims is that no action has been taken in a complex fraud, where more than 4,000 Florida students were allegedly conned into signing a form which could lead them to be doubly registered and void their votes. The Florida Law Enforcement Department has told the complainants that it is too busy to investigate.
In Colorado too, Democrats are complaining about an attempt to remove up to 6,000 convicted felons from the electoral roll, at the behest of the state's Republican secretary of state, Donetta Davidson, despite a US federal law that prohibits eliminating a voter's rights within 90 days of an election to give time for the voter to protest..."
Norman Solomon: Democracy Requires Real Journalism
"...Journalism is potentially a terrific clarifying force. During the days and weeks ahead, we'll see whether the news media are up to the challenge. The signs are not encouraging. So far this election year, under the guise of being evenhanded, the standard news reports just give us snippets of information, misleading assertions, speculation, claims and counterclaims.
The battle between George W. Bush and John Kerry is much more than a struggle for power. It puts to the test our capacity for democracy. Voters are supposed to choose the president. But this essential right is under dire threat. That's the big story - the GOP elephant in the national living room.
The last week of October began with reports of a concerted Republican strategy to mobilize several thousand poll watchers in Ohio to specifically challenge the right to vote. Naturally, poor people and racial minorities - always the most vulnerable - are being targeted with this Election Day maneuver. Such no-holds-barred gambits are widespread in a number of swing states..."
LA Times Editorial: Guantanamo Stonewall
"Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 600 foreign terror suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base were entitled to lawyers and the chance to challenge their imprisonment. But in the months since, Pentagon and Justice Department officials have simply acted as if the high court's decision didn't exist, blocking efforts by detainees to meet with their lawyers and insisting on onerous conditions for those meetings.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly spelled it out to the Bush administration - again. You must let detainees confer with their lawyers, she said, and you cannot monitor their conversations.
Kollar-Kotelly's decision could not be clearer. The government's foot-dragging, appeals and prevarication, she wrote, are 'attempts to erode this bedrock principle' of attorney-client privacy with a 'flimsy assemblage' of arguments.
The judge scoffed at administration claims that detainees can adequately represent themselves before military tribunals or rely on non-lawyer advisors. Many of these men need interpreters to communicate, she wrote, and certainly 'can't grapple with the complexities of a foreign legal system' without a lawyer, access to a law library and English fluency.
The judge's rebuke is all the more stinging because she is a former federal prosecutor. The Justice Department's reaction should have been a humble, 'Yes, your honor.' Instead, a department spokesman mumbled, 'We are reviewing the decision,' a past signal for more stalling and appeals..."
The Independent (UK) - Blair's secret mission to woo Kerry
"Tony Blair has sent one of his closest advisers on a secret peace mission to mend relations with John Kerry, the United States presidential challenger, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
News of the confidential meeting comes as the campaign enters its final 48 hours, with the candidates running neck and neck. Mr Blair is concerned that he will appear isolated if George Bush loses in Tuesday's poll, because of his support for the Iraq war.
The Prime Minister authorised Philip Gould, his polling guru, to seek a meeting with Mary Beth Cahill, Mr Kerry's campaign manager. Lord Gould, a co-founder of New Labour, is one of Mr Blair's closest confidants who keeps him in constantly in touch with floating voters..."
Reuters: Whistleblower says Halliburton contract abuse blatant
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official on Friday called the government's grant of multi-billion dollar contracts to oil services giant Halliburton the worst case of contracting abuse she has ever seen.
'It was misconduct, and part of that misconduct was blatant,' said Bunny Greenhouse, in an interview on NBC's Nightly News program..."
Newsweek: Hell To Pay
"Whoever wins, the road ahead in Iraq is rough. Both Bush and Kerry have plans that depend on newly trained Iraqis. But insurgents are killing recruits, and infiltrating the forces. A report from the front"
"Dirty Tricks Reported Ahead Of Tuesday's Election
With one day until the presidential elections, reports are coming in across the country of efforts to confuse, intimidate and discourage voters from going to the polls. Ion Sancho, the supervisor of elections in Leon County in Florida, told the Washington Post, 'In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this.'
> In Florida thousands of students have learned that not only was their party registration switched to Republican but their home address was changed without their knowledge. This means that when they show up to vote at their local precinct, their names won't appear on the voting rolls.
> In Pittsburgh, fliers were handed out on what looked like county letterhead that claimed voting had been extended an extra day 'due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday.' The fliers said Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats should vote on Wednesday.
> In Wisconsin fliers purportedly from the a group calling itself the 'Milwaukee Black Voters League' told voters, 'If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election, If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you.'
> In South Carolina, a letter purportedly from the NAACP warned voters they can not vote if they have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child support.
Civil Rights Activists Sue Ohio To Block GOP Challenges
Meanwhile in Ohio, a pair of civil rights activists have filed a lawsuit to block the Republicans from challenging the eligibility of any voters at the polls tomorrow. The couple, Marian and Donald Spencer, said the Republicans are basing the challenges on a law dating back to the Jim Crow era that was originally aimed at disenfranchising black voters.
GA. Officials Throw Out GOP Challengers
In Georgia's Atkinson County, the Republicans attempted to challenge the voting eligibility of 78 percent of the county's registered Latino voters. But on Thursday the Board of Registrars dismissed the Republican complaint. The county attorney said, 'The challenges ... are legally insufficient because they are based solely on race,'..."
Greg Palast: Abused and conned in Florida
"An Observer [London] investigation in the United States has uncovered widespread allegations of electoral abuse, many of them going uninvestigated despite complaints of what would appear to be criminal attempts to manipulate voter lists.
The allegations, which come just two days before Americans go to the polls in one of the most tightly contested elections in a generation, threaten to plunge Tuesday's count into a legal minefield and overshadow even the elections of 2000...
...One of the more serious claims is that no action has been taken in a complex fraud, where more than 4,000 Florida students were allegedly conned into signing a form which could lead them to be doubly registered and void their votes. The Florida Law Enforcement Department has told the complainants that it is too busy to investigate.
In Colorado too, Democrats are complaining about an attempt to remove up to 6,000 convicted felons from the electoral roll, at the behest of the state's Republican secretary of state, Donetta Davidson, despite a US federal law that prohibits eliminating a voter's rights within 90 days of an election to give time for the voter to protest..."
Norman Solomon: Democracy Requires Real Journalism
"...Journalism is potentially a terrific clarifying force. During the days and weeks ahead, we'll see whether the news media are up to the challenge. The signs are not encouraging. So far this election year, under the guise of being evenhanded, the standard news reports just give us snippets of information, misleading assertions, speculation, claims and counterclaims.
The battle between George W. Bush and John Kerry is much more than a struggle for power. It puts to the test our capacity for democracy. Voters are supposed to choose the president. But this essential right is under dire threat. That's the big story - the GOP elephant in the national living room.
The last week of October began with reports of a concerted Republican strategy to mobilize several thousand poll watchers in Ohio to specifically challenge the right to vote. Naturally, poor people and racial minorities - always the most vulnerable - are being targeted with this Election Day maneuver. Such no-holds-barred gambits are widespread in a number of swing states..."
LA Times Editorial: Guantanamo Stonewall
"Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 600 foreign terror suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base were entitled to lawyers and the chance to challenge their imprisonment. But in the months since, Pentagon and Justice Department officials have simply acted as if the high court's decision didn't exist, blocking efforts by detainees to meet with their lawyers and insisting on onerous conditions for those meetings.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly spelled it out to the Bush administration - again. You must let detainees confer with their lawyers, she said, and you cannot monitor their conversations.
Kollar-Kotelly's decision could not be clearer. The government's foot-dragging, appeals and prevarication, she wrote, are 'attempts to erode this bedrock principle' of attorney-client privacy with a 'flimsy assemblage' of arguments.
The judge scoffed at administration claims that detainees can adequately represent themselves before military tribunals or rely on non-lawyer advisors. Many of these men need interpreters to communicate, she wrote, and certainly 'can't grapple with the complexities of a foreign legal system' without a lawyer, access to a law library and English fluency.
The judge's rebuke is all the more stinging because she is a former federal prosecutor. The Justice Department's reaction should have been a humble, 'Yes, your honor.' Instead, a department spokesman mumbled, 'We are reviewing the decision,' a past signal for more stalling and appeals..."
The Independent (UK) - Blair's secret mission to woo Kerry
"Tony Blair has sent one of his closest advisers on a secret peace mission to mend relations with John Kerry, the United States presidential challenger, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
News of the confidential meeting comes as the campaign enters its final 48 hours, with the candidates running neck and neck. Mr Blair is concerned that he will appear isolated if George Bush loses in Tuesday's poll, because of his support for the Iraq war.
The Prime Minister authorised Philip Gould, his polling guru, to seek a meeting with Mary Beth Cahill, Mr Kerry's campaign manager. Lord Gould, a co-founder of New Labour, is one of Mr Blair's closest confidants who keeps him in constantly in touch with floating voters..."
Reuters: Whistleblower says Halliburton contract abuse blatant
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official on Friday called the government's grant of multi-billion dollar contracts to oil services giant Halliburton the worst case of contracting abuse she has ever seen.
'It was misconduct, and part of that misconduct was blatant,' said Bunny Greenhouse, in an interview on NBC's Nightly News program..."
Newsweek: Hell To Pay
"Whoever wins, the road ahead in Iraq is rough. Both Bush and Kerry have plans that depend on newly trained Iraqis. But insurgents are killing recruits, and infiltrating the forces. A report from the front"
