Saturday, December 11, 2004
proof that those in control of our government will do whatever the hell they please, until someone finds out.
Citing Personnel Reasons By Sam?Schechner: "Everyone leads their final editions with what appears to be a classic late-Friday news dump: Bernard Kerik pulled the plug on his nomination to head Homeland Security last night, citing 'personal reasons' that he later clarified were of an illegal nanny variety. 'I personally apologize to you for not having focused on this earlier,' Kerik wrote President Bush in a letter the White House released. Later, Kerik released a statement in which he says he'd just discovered two days ago that a nanny under his employ may have been an illegal immigrant and that her payroll taxes had, uh, somehow gone unpaid.
The papers more or less swallow this two-day timeline, although the New York Times ominously notes that the nanny was sent packing to her unspecified home country two weeks ago, and the Washington Post says White House officials found it suspicious that Kerik was not aware of any potential problem. No word on whether they might have been aware.
In fact, the papers are shy about speculating that the nanny might be a smokescreen (as suggested by Slate's Mickey Kaus), but everyone winkingly recaps the growing list of news accounts that have been dogging Kerik in recent days?from his questionable relationship to a company that produces Taser guns to his less-than-stellar stint supervising police training in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times cites recent a Newsweek profile that mentions how he bought the NYPD four $50,000 security doors that were too heavy to be installed and later became an advisor to the company that sold them. Last night, Newsweek also reported that it had unearthed an old arrest warrant for Kerik and faxed it to the White House just a couple hours before the withdrawal announcement."
Citing Personnel Reasons By Sam?Schechner: "Everyone leads their final editions with what appears to be a classic late-Friday news dump: Bernard Kerik pulled the plug on his nomination to head Homeland Security last night, citing 'personal reasons' that he later clarified were of an illegal nanny variety. 'I personally apologize to you for not having focused on this earlier,' Kerik wrote President Bush in a letter the White House released. Later, Kerik released a statement in which he says he'd just discovered two days ago that a nanny under his employ may have been an illegal immigrant and that her payroll taxes had, uh, somehow gone unpaid.
The papers more or less swallow this two-day timeline, although the New York Times ominously notes that the nanny was sent packing to her unspecified home country two weeks ago, and the Washington Post says White House officials found it suspicious that Kerik was not aware of any potential problem. No word on whether they might have been aware.
In fact, the papers are shy about speculating that the nanny might be a smokescreen (as suggested by Slate's Mickey Kaus), but everyone winkingly recaps the growing list of news accounts that have been dogging Kerik in recent days?from his questionable relationship to a company that produces Taser guns to his less-than-stellar stint supervising police training in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times cites recent a Newsweek profile that mentions how he bought the NYPD four $50,000 security doors that were too heavy to be installed and later became an advisor to the company that sold them. Last night, Newsweek also reported that it had unearthed an old arrest warrant for Kerik and faxed it to the White House just a couple hours before the withdrawal announcement."
Friday, December 10, 2004
this should really be filed in the Quote of the Day series... but i'll keep it here since it basically sums it all up rather nicely:
Democratic Underground Forums - This is great. We can't take back our country until we take back our: "'Look, if a liberal is someone who wants clean air instead of subsidies for polluters, if a liberal is someone who thinks every child in America regardless of race, religion, or wealth deserves a free quality education, deserves free first rate health care, deserves economic opportunities, and safe neighborhoods, if a liberal believes that our government should stop rewarding corporations for polluting and tax evasion and fraud and outsourcing jobs and stealing from electric ratepayers in California and stealing worker's pensions, then YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'M A LIBERAL.'"
Democratic Underground Forums - This is great. We can't take back our country until we take back our: "'Look, if a liberal is someone who wants clean air instead of subsidies for polluters, if a liberal is someone who thinks every child in America regardless of race, religion, or wealth deserves a free quality education, deserves free first rate health care, deserves economic opportunities, and safe neighborhoods, if a liberal believes that our government should stop rewarding corporations for polluting and tax evasion and fraud and outsourcing jobs and stealing from electric ratepayers in California and stealing worker's pensions, then YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'M A LIBERAL.'"
SS reform, bushistista style, is a snowjob on the American people.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Borrow, Speculate and Hope: "If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its costs, makes it worse. "
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Borrow, Speculate and Hope: "If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its costs, makes it worse. "
the Dumbification Of America continues....
DesMoinesRegister.com: "A government investigation found the people who answer telephones for the Medicare help line gave inaccurate responses to questions from callers about one-third of the time. When customer-service representatives were asked about the $600 subsidy to help low-income people buy drugs, they gave the wrong answer 55 out of 70 times. One representative didn't understand that 'trunk strength' in the script he was reading from meant upper-body strength. So he told a senior Medicare would pay for a wheelchair only if he had adequate space to fit it in the trunk of his car."
DesMoinesRegister.com: "A government investigation found the people who answer telephones for the Medicare help line gave inaccurate responses to questions from callers about one-third of the time. When customer-service representatives were asked about the $600 subsidy to help low-income people buy drugs, they gave the wrong answer 55 out of 70 times. One representative didn't understand that 'trunk strength' in the script he was reading from meant upper-body strength. So he told a senior Medicare would pay for a wheelchair only if he had adequate space to fit it in the trunk of his car."
this kid can't be 18. yet he writes as good, if not better than, 90% of the employed journalists i know.
A Radical Youth Journal Based in the U.S.: "Right-wing ideology is mostly a game of smoke and mirrors. Outside the narrow segment of the very wealthy, it achieves its appeal by cleverly capitalizing upon the inchoate prejudices, suspicions, fears, and insecurities prevalent among the public. The method is simple but effective: for any given problem, introduce a few crucial codewords and phrases that both eject said problem's real dimensions and inject as many emotionally-loaded, jingoistic, and anxiety-inducing intimations as possible. These Trojan horses, once inserted into public discourse, arouse the appropriate psychological insecurities and pre-existing prejudices, and soon come to reshape the framework of public discourse itself. The trick is to recognize this game from the outset - and to reject and dismantle the imposed framework - instead of hopelessly banging on the walls from inside the asylum.
Take, for instance, the two pillars buttressing the much-touted 'moral values' platform that has demoralized many liberals: opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Bowing before the authority of the 'moral majority,' cowed liberals have simply accepted the supposed necessity of retreating on these social issues, of conjuring up candidates and platforms more amenable to a more conservative America. But why accept wooden horses as new deities? In reality, there is nothing majoritarian, moral, or authoritative about these political positions, derived as they are from politics shaped by fear, propped up by far-right financing, enabled by a deluge of liberal eulogizing and emboldened by a drought of leftist organizing. A closer look at conservative stances on both abortion and gay marriage reveal them as utterly hollow and inconsistent by any standard of judgment.
The great hue and cry over abortion, according to its pious opposition, is all abou"
A Radical Youth Journal Based in the U.S.: "Right-wing ideology is mostly a game of smoke and mirrors. Outside the narrow segment of the very wealthy, it achieves its appeal by cleverly capitalizing upon the inchoate prejudices, suspicions, fears, and insecurities prevalent among the public. The method is simple but effective: for any given problem, introduce a few crucial codewords and phrases that both eject said problem's real dimensions and inject as many emotionally-loaded, jingoistic, and anxiety-inducing intimations as possible. These Trojan horses, once inserted into public discourse, arouse the appropriate psychological insecurities and pre-existing prejudices, and soon come to reshape the framework of public discourse itself. The trick is to recognize this game from the outset - and to reject and dismantle the imposed framework - instead of hopelessly banging on the walls from inside the asylum.
Take, for instance, the two pillars buttressing the much-touted 'moral values' platform that has demoralized many liberals: opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Bowing before the authority of the 'moral majority,' cowed liberals have simply accepted the supposed necessity of retreating on these social issues, of conjuring up candidates and platforms more amenable to a more conservative America. But why accept wooden horses as new deities? In reality, there is nothing majoritarian, moral, or authoritative about these political positions, derived as they are from politics shaped by fear, propped up by far-right financing, enabled by a deluge of liberal eulogizing and emboldened by a drought of leftist organizing. A closer look at conservative stances on both abortion and gay marriage reveal them as utterly hollow and inconsistent by any standard of judgment.
The great hue and cry over abortion, according to its pious opposition, is all abou"
WOW
The Blue Lemur - Progressive Politics and Media News ? In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman?s office silent: "In the vote fraud prototype that I created things are not what they seem. Hidden on the screen are invisible buttons. A person with knowledge of the locations of those invisible buttons can then use them to alter the votes of everyone before them. By clicking the correct order of invisible buttons the candidate selected by the user is compared to other candidates within that same race. If the candidate they selected is leading the race nothing happens. If the other candidate is leading the race the vote totals are altered so that the selected candidate is now leading the race with 51% of the vote. The other candidates then share the remaining 49% in exact proportion to the totals they had previously. In the prototype supplied to Feeney the vote totals show on the screen. In an actual application the user would receive no visible clues to the fraud that had just occurred. Since the vote is applied by race, any single race or multiple races can be altered. The supervisors or any other voter would never notice this fraud since no visible sign would appear. Additionally, the procedure could be repeated as many times as was necessary to achieve the desired results. No amount of testing or simulations would expose the fraud as its activation and process is completely invisible to everyone except the person programming the vote fraud routine."
The same procedure could be automated to activate without any user intervention whenever the machine detects a certain pattern of voting. The algorithm could also be altered from hidden keys or triggers that would allow the fraudulent user to manipulate both the margins and percentages of any particular race. In most national elections it is not necessary to win every area.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
highlites of what just came at the top of the DU board:
MEDICAL experts have confirmed that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s opposition leader, was poisoned in an attempt on his life during election campaigning, the doctor who supervised his treatment at an Austrian clinic said yesterday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1393172,00.html
At approximately 3:30pm today, Ron Paul's press secretary Jeff Deist called Alex Jones to warn him that the legislation that encompasses the national ID card and Patriot Act 2 provisions was on the verge of passing the House tonight.
Deist stated that the bill and what it means for America could be described in a word as 'tyranny'.
Deist's tone was the most frantic that Alex had ever known in his years of communication with Ron Paul's office. Alex made it clear how upset Desit was and that the situation reminded him of a 'war room atmosphere'. Deist and Ron Paul are desperate to mobilize the alternative media before the bill reaches the Senate tomorrow.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2004/071204nationalid.htm
Bush Seeks to Boost Troop Morale for Iraq Fight
By Adam Entous
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Reuters) - President Bush sought on Tuesday to boost the morale of U.S. troops facing extended deployments in Iraq by promising to train Iraqi forces to replace them but acknowledged only mixed results so far.
As deadly insurgent attacks continued, claiming another American life in Baghdad and taking the U.S. combat death toll to 1,000 since last year's invasion, Bush made clear he expects a tough road ahead and stopped short of offering timetables.
While a recent offensive in Falluja "dealt the enemy a severe blow," Bush said the insurgents who used the city as their stronghold will "keep on fighting," and offered a more cautious assessment of Iraqi troops than he has in the past.
"Some Iraqi units have performed better than others," Bush told thousands of camouflage-clad Marines. "Some Iraqis have been intimidated enough by the insurgents to leave the service to their country."
But Bush said "a great many are standing firm," and the United States would continue training Iraqi security forces "so the Iraqi people can eventually take responsibility for their own security." He touted a new NATO training program and said efforts were underway to "develop a core of well-trained senior and mid-level Iraqi officers" to lead the new forces.
(more)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/2004...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economic outlook dimmed on Tuesday after reports said business productivity grew more slowly in the third quarter than first estimated, labor costs rose and other indicators signaled softening activity.
Chain store sales fell in the crucial shopping period after Thanksgiving, planned job cuts climbed during November and a survey of consumer confidence waned in possible pointers that the economy tempered its pace in the final months of the year.
Outstanding U.S. consumer credit swelled to $2.093 trillion in October, the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) said.
The Labor Department (news - web sites) said nonfarm business productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the July-to-September period -- the slowest clip since the fourth quarter of 2002. It also nudged up growth in unit labor costs to a 1.8 percent pace in a potential boost to inflation.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=1&u=/nm/20041207/bs_nm/economy_usa_dc
The bitter battle over the stolen November 2 election in Ohio has turned into a rapidly escalating all-out multi-front war with the outcome of the real presidential vote count increasingly in doubt.
In Columbus, major demonstrations on Saturday, December 4, have been followed by an angry confrontation between demonstrators and state police at the office of Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney state chairman who is also officially in charge of certifying the election, at least for now. Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson has called on Blackwell to recuse himself from dealings with the election, saying his role as Bush-Cheney chairman has compromised his objectivity in delivering fair election results.
New revelations about voting machine allocations in Franklin County emerged on Tuesday, December 7. William Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told WVKO radio listeners that the Board begins “stationing voting machines four weeks out” before Election Day. Security questions were raised after a machine in Gahanna Ward 1B at the New Life Church recorded 4258 votes for Bush where only 638 voters cast ballots.
Cornell McCleary, former minority director of the Republican Party of Ohio, argues that it would easy for computer hackers to hack directly into the machines: “The two points of vulnerability are setting up a computer and hacking directly into the machine, or the line that goes directly down to the Board of Elections.” He dismissed the Gahanna incident as a “prank.” Prank or not, Kerry’s decision to concede early on November 3 was based in part on these imaginary votes that were either a prank, a computer glitch, or a deliberate effort to boost Bush’s total in Ohio.
Anthony also conceded that some voters in Franklin County waited up to “five or six hours’ in order to vote. He admitted that the Board of Elections usually holds back “a truckload of voting machines"--- 75---in case there’s a truck accident." He blamed this on the lack of machines and the fact that 77 voting machines malfunctioned on Election Day. Two affidavits from voters obtained by the Free Press report that voting machine maintenance people came out to fix machines and their technique seemed to be to continually plug and unplug, or reboot, the electronic machines until the machines functioned again.
Anthony also confirmed that the Board only delivered 2741 of its 2866 machines at the opening of polls on Election Day. He said Board of Elections workers later placed an additional 44. This would put the total number in use at the “close of polls” at 2785, leaving 81 machines sitting unused. Anthony further said Election Day problems were the result of utilizing essentially 4800 volunteers with minimal training, paid a small stipend. Some poll workers have testified they repeatedly called the Board of Elections for additional machines as lines stacked up at their inner city precincts but got no response.
In addition, new evidence has continued to surface of widespread voter fraud throughout the state. Among other things, a letter from Shelby County election officials dated December 2 confirmed that the county discarded "tabulator test deck reports" from the November 2 vote count "to reduce paperwork and confusion with official results." As this county's response is the first of 88 to come from Freedom of Information Act filings, it seems likely other controversial practices could surface.
Moreover, new computer tabulation errors – first reported locally after Election Day – have resurfaced, and are of a magnitude suggesting Bush’s margin over Kerry---now 118,775 votes or 2 percent of the total votes cast in the state, according to Blackwell---could easily have been manipulated.
One precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, recorded a negative 25 million votes (that's not a typo) on an ES&S Votronic voting machine, which was discarded from official results, according to a Nov. 3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php. Machine malfunctions combined with human error to create the massive negative vote count. “That led to some races showing votes of negative 25 million, Munroe said,” quoting Mark Monroe, the Mahoning County election chief. "The numbers were nonsensical so we knew there were problems." The website www.VotersUnite.org lists dozens of voting machine errors, voter intimidation reports and other problems – from the very large to very small – that were reported in the Ohio press. At the very least these errors, many of which are detailed below, add up to a scathing indictment of a statewide election. On December 6 White House Spokesman Scott McClellan called the election “free and fair.”
But even the www.VotersUnite.org list does not contain some of the biggest errors that will be cited in an election challenge filed Tuesday, December 7 by the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign in Ohio Supreme Court. It does not cite two non-partisan Election Day exit polls, by CNN and Zogby, which found Kerry leading by mid-afternoon. The Ohio Honest Election Campaign filing also describes abnormal patterns in the votes for statewide Democratic candidates – with Kerry receiving fewer votes than obscure candidates – could point to computer vote shifting. The Honest Election Campaign is seeking to investigate these abnormalities.
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, Rev. Jesse Jackson and many people associated with recounting the Ohio vote and challenging the election returns, will brief Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington.
Rev. Jackson has repeatedly traveled to Ohio, demanding at packed, angry rallies that the Ohio Supreme Court consider setting aside Bush's victory in Ohio and that Congress should investigate how Ohioans voted. Among other things, the call for a re-vote as in Ukraine has become a consistent theme among disgruntled Ohio voters.
Jackson’s involvement comes as other national public-interest groups are pursuing their own litigation. For example, People for the American Way is trying to stop the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland from rejecting 8,099 of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast there. The ballots were thrown out because voters did not properly complete them or cast them at polling places that were not their own.
(EDITOR’s NOTE: What follows is an excerpted list http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp of voting errors in Ohio compiles by VotersUnite.org. They are placed in the following categories: malfeasance, canvass anomalies, machine malfunction, vote suppression, provisional ballots, fraud, absentee ballot errors, and others. The link to the original news report follows.)
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/975
Monday, December 06, 2004
what better logic could you have?
DesMoinesRegister.com: "Ex-felons leaving correctional facilities should automatically have voting rights restored, or they should be free from paying any taxes, surcharges, fees or other government-initiated financial burdens."
-Marty Ryan,
legislative director,
Iowa Civil Liberties Union,
Des Moines.
DesMoinesRegister.com: "Ex-felons leaving correctional facilities should automatically have voting rights restored, or they should be free from paying any taxes, surcharges, fees or other government-initiated financial burdens."
-Marty Ryan,
legislative director,
Iowa Civil Liberties Union,
Des Moines.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
republicons can not exist when there is a middle class.
Retail, job data hint at a pinch for middle class - General News - Retail - Economy: "'The longer-term pattern is that the rich are getting richer,' said Standard & Poor's Chief Economist David Wyss. 'It's not so much that the poor are getting poorer, but there's a hollowing out of the middle class.'"
Retail, job data hint at a pinch for middle class - General News - Retail - Economy: "'The longer-term pattern is that the rich are getting richer,' said Standard & Poor's Chief Economist David Wyss. 'It's not so much that the poor are getting poorer, but there's a hollowing out of the middle class.'"
looks like something i should help spread:
For the holidays, naughty and nice. Dem donors and Repub: "With the holidays upon us, some of us might wish to be mindful of who we patronize relative to their Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics.
WITH US:
* Price Club/Costco donated $225K, of which 99% went to democrats;
* Rite Aid, $517K, 60% to democrats;
* Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean), $22K, 100% to democrats;
* Warnaco (undergarments), $55K, 73% to democrats;
* Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, $153K, 99% to democrats;
* Estee Lauder, $448K, 95% to democrats;
* Guess ? Inc., $145K, 98% to democrats;
* Calvin Klein, $78K, 100% to democrats;
* Liz Claiborne, Inc., $34K, 97% to democrats;
* Levi Straus, $26K, 97% to democrats;
* Olan Mills, $175K, 99% to democrats.
* Gallo Winery, $337K, 95% to democrats;
* Southern Wine & Spirits, $213K, 73% to democrats;
* Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (includes beverage business, plus considerable media interests), $2M+, 67% democrats.
* Sonic Corporation, $83K, 98% democrat;
* Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections), $112K, 96% Democrats;
* Hyatt Corporation, $187K, 80% to democrats;
AGAINST US:
WalMart, $467K, 97% to republicans;
K-Mart, $524K, 86% to republicans;
Home Depot, $298K, 89% to republicans;
Target, $226K, 70% to republicans;
Circuit City Stores, $261K, 95% to republicans;
3M Co., $281K, 87% to republicans;
Hallmark Cards, $319K, 92% to repub"
For the holidays, naughty and nice. Dem donors and Repub: "With the holidays upon us, some of us might wish to be mindful of who we patronize relative to their Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics.
WITH US:
* Price Club/Costco donated $225K, of which 99% went to democrats;
* Rite Aid, $517K, 60% to democrats;
* Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean), $22K, 100% to democrats;
* Warnaco (undergarments), $55K, 73% to democrats;
* Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, $153K, 99% to democrats;
* Estee Lauder, $448K, 95% to democrats;
* Guess ? Inc., $145K, 98% to democrats;
* Calvin Klein, $78K, 100% to democrats;
* Liz Claiborne, Inc., $34K, 97% to democrats;
* Levi Straus, $26K, 97% to democrats;
* Olan Mills, $175K, 99% to democrats.
* Gallo Winery, $337K, 95% to democrats;
* Southern Wine & Spirits, $213K, 73% to democrats;
* Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (includes beverage business, plus considerable media interests), $2M+, 67% democrats.
* Sonic Corporation, $83K, 98% democrat;
* Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections), $112K, 96% Democrats;
* Hyatt Corporation, $187K, 80% to democrats;
AGAINST US:
WalMart, $467K, 97% to republicans;
K-Mart, $524K, 86% to republicans;
Home Depot, $298K, 89% to republicans;
Target, $226K, 70% to republicans;
Circuit City Stores, $261K, 95% to republicans;
3M Co., $281K, 87% to republicans;
Hallmark Cards, $319K, 92% to repub"
remember when this story first broke and fox led the charge to make tillman the poster boy of how even rich kids sacrifice in times of war, and that he died a hero (well, he did, but not in the way we were led to believe).
Barrage of Bullets Drowned Out Cries of Comrades (washingtonpost.com): "It ended on a stony ridge in fading light. Spec. Pat Tillman lay dying behind a boulder. A young fellow U.S. Army Ranger stretched prone beside him, praying quietly as tracer bullets poured in.
'Cease fire! Friendlies!' Tillman cried out. "
Barrage of Bullets Drowned Out Cries of Comrades (washingtonpost.com): "It ended on a stony ridge in fading light. Spec. Pat Tillman lay dying behind a boulder. A young fellow U.S. Army Ranger stretched prone beside him, praying quietly as tracer bullets poured in.
'Cease fire! Friendlies!' Tillman cried out. "
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