and speaking of rewriting history.... the purge is on.

CIA removing documents from National Archives :: UnderReported.com :: Surprising stories from the media and primary sources: "[David] Geyer commented that the practice of submitting an entire FRUS [Foreign Relations] manuscript to the CIA had resulted in the reclassification of documents located at the National Archives. NARA, however, merely added these documents to the list of withdrawn items without indicating that the documents had been declassified previously. Don McIlwain noted that the Department of Energy cited the Kyl-Lott amendment as justification for reclassifying previously declassified documents. CIA reviewers, however, claimed the right to remove documents from the open files that, in their view, had never been 'properly declassified.'"

and while i'm on that page..... a perfect example of how the Dumbification Of America started. a question was asked about iraq, and rummy answers as if it was about terrorists.

DoD News: Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with Parade Magazine: "Q: What it sounds like you're saying too in this process then is that we're going to need to address Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, particularly in the light of even the evidence that with inspectors Saddam continued to build his arsenal through the 1990s and now we don't know what exactly has happened. Is that going to be a top priority as well?
Rumsfeld: Those are decisions for the president, but he has been very clear that he is deeply concerned about the problem of terrorism. He is going to find terrorists and keep them out and root them out, and he's going to create an environment that suggests to countries that are harboring them that they ought to stop. "

again, rummy slips.... and hardly anybody notices (except those fine folx on DU)

DoD News: Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with Parade Magazine: "Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center. The only way to deal with this problem is by taking the battle to the terrorists, wherever they are, and dealing with them. "

had to snap this one before someone decided to rewrite history and remove it.
CNN.com - Transcripts: "DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: And to change that way of living, would strike at the very essence of our country.

And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.

And that is exactly what we cannot allow to happen. "

a couple of good letters today, actually more than 2....

Letters To The Editor:
David Yepsen's Dec. 19 column, "Welcome Pro-life Democrats," praises some in the Democratic Party for wanting to embrace pro-life candidates. Meanwhile, the blatantly anti-life American foreign policy - a policy developed and maintained by men and women from BOTH parties - remains free of any criticism.

It seems pretty hypocritical to me, but I bet there are plenty of so-called pro-lifers out there who are also - thanks to convenient rationalizations to clear their consciences - vehemently pro-war.

Perhaps this is the type of sanctimoniousness Voltaire had in mind when he quipped: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
-Steve Hosch,
Gilbert.


"This lifelong Democrat will welcome pro-lifers into our party when the Republicans welcome pro-choicers into theirs.
-Ira Lacher,
Des Moines."

like i said, the beginning of the end.

Us To Deploy New Missiles In S.Korea To Destroy WMD In N.Korea: "WASHINGTON, Dec 20 Asia Pulse - The United States will deploy missiles to South Korea in 2005 with the aim of destroying underground facilities for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in North Korea, a U.S. think tank said."

what more proof does anybody need that democracy was only an excuse that could sell the crime.

CHALLENGES 2004-2005: U.S. to Take Bigger Bite of Iraq's Economic Pie: "WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (IPS) - The United States is helping the interim Iraqi government continue to make major economic changes, including cuts to social subsidies, full access for U.S. companies to the nation's oil reserves and reconsideration of oil deals that the previous regime signed with France and Russia.

During a visit here this week, officials of the U.S.-backed administration detailed some of the economic moves planned for Iraq, many of them appearing to give U.S. corporations greater reach into the occupied nation's economy.

For example, the current leadership is looking at privatising the Iraqi National Oil Company, said Finance Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi.

The government, which is supposed to be replaced after elections scheduled for January, will also pass a new law that will further open Iraq's huge oil reserves to foreign companies. U.S. firms are expected to gain the lion's share of access in a process estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

'So I think this is very promising to the American investors and to American enterprises, certainly to oil companies,' Abdel Mahdi said at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Tuesday.
{snip}
One major move the country is inching towards under U.S. guardianship, which was discussed this week, is a rollback of Iraq's huge subsidies system, which may have kept millions of Iraqis from starvation under U.S. and UK-backed sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the 1991 Gulf War.

The sanctions lasted for 12 years. A study by the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Iraq's Ministry of Health found that 500,000 more Iraqi children died under sanctions, from 1991 to 1998, than would have otherwise perished, but they stressed that not all the deaths could be directly blamed on the provisions.

It is believed that many more Iraqis would have died if not for a strong subsidies system that gave food rations to Iraqi families."

the beginning of the end.

International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform: "MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has successfully test-fired a mobile version of the intercontinental Topol-M ballistic missile in the last of
four test-firings before its deployment next year, Interfax news agency has reported.

Known as Russia's most sophisticated nuclear missile, it can be fitted with a single or multiple warheads and hit targets more than
10,000 km (6,200 miles) away.

The firing was part of President Vladimir Putin's plan to turn Russia, whose Soviet-era missile arsenal needs serious renewal and
financing, into a major global military and nuclear power."

thought i'd pass it along....

TOP TEN MOST OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENTS OF 2004 ... [Media Matters for America]: "Here are the Top Ten most outrageous statements we have heard this year from members of the media. From anti-Semitic comments and attacks on women, gays, and lesbians to reprehensible acceptance of the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture, these statements are acutely representative of the conservative hate speech we found in the news media:
Rush Limbaugh on the Abu Ghraib photos: 'I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?'
Ann Coulter: '[Senator John] Kerry will improve the economy in the emergency services and body bag industry.'
Tony Blankley called philanthropist George Soros 'a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust.'
Michael Savage: 'When you hear 'human rights,' think gays. ... [T]hink only one thing: someone who wants to rape your son.'
Oliver North: 'Every terrorist out there is hoping John Kerry is the next president of the United States.'
Pat Robertson on gays and lesbians: '[S]elf-absorbed hedonists ... that want to impose their particular sexuality on the rest of America.'
Pat Buchanan: '[H]omosexuality is an affliction, like alcoholism.'
Bill O'Reilly to Jewish caller: '[I]f you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel.'
Bill Cunningham (Clear Channel radio host who appeared as a guest on The Sean Hannity Show): The election is over because 'Elizabeth Edwards has now sung.'
Jerry Falwell: 'And we're going to invite PETA [to 'wild game night'] as our special guest, P-E-T-A -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. We want you to come, we're going to give you a top seat there, so you can sit there and suffer. This is one of my spe"

ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME

War Crimes (washingtonpost.com): "THANKS TO a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of foreign detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA -- truths the Bush administration implacably has refused to acknowledge. Since the publication of photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in the spring the administration's whitewashers -- led by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- have contended that the crimes were carried out by a few low-ranking reservists, that they were limited to the night shift during a few chaotic months at Abu Ghraib in 2003, that they were unrelated to the interrogation of prisoners and that no torture occurred at the Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds of terrorism suspects are held. The new documents establish beyond any doubt that every part of this cover story is false. "

government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation....

A key wildlife protection that has governed federal forest management for more than two decades will be dropped under new regulations announced Wednesday by the Bush administration, and requirements for public involvement in planning for the country's 192 million acres of national forest will be dramatically altered.

....

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, is a former lobbyist for the timber industry, which threw its political support overwhelmingly toward Republicans in the last election cycle, donating more than $1.7 million to GOP candidates and party committees and just $380,000 to Democrats, according to data compiled by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Virginia firm that tracks campaign contributions.

Contributors identifying themselves as working for the timber industry gave $268,552 to the Republican National Committee and another $163,321 to President Bush, records show.

Three of Bush's elite fundraisers were also top timber executives: W. Henson Moore, chief of the American Forest and Paper Assn., the industry's trade group; Otis B. Ingram III, president of a Georgia lumber company; and Peter Secchia, chairman of Universal Forest Products.

Among the first donors to Bush's 2005 inaugural committee was International Paper Co., which donated $100,000 to help pay for the festivities

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-forest23dec23,0,6614483.story?coll=la-home-headlines

DesMoinesRegister.com: "The Dec. 13 Charles Krauthammer column talked about President Bush spreading democracy in Afghanistan ('Miracle in Afghanistan'). This is a 'paper' democracy at best. Hamid Karzai is a puppet president. Warlords still rule in the regions outside Kabul. The Taliban are regaining influence and undermining reconstruction efforts. Opium production is at an all-time high. The warlord's private militias rule the country, not democracy. And, the warlords are gaining more power and influence through the sale of opium. Is this the foundation of good democracy?
-Gerald Pecinovsky,"

government for the people, by the people has turned into a government for the corporation, by the corporation.

The National Institutes of Health: Public Servant or Private Marketer?: "What doctors were not told for years is this: While making recommendations in the name of the NIH, Brewer was working for the companies that sell the drugs. Government and company records show that from 2001 to 2003, he accepted about $114,000 in consulting fees from four companies making or developing cholesterol medications, including $31,000 from the maker of Crestor.

Brewer was far from alone in taking industry's money: At least 530 government scientists at the NIH, the nation's preeminent agency for medical research, have taken fees, stock or stock options from biomedical companies in the last five years, records show."

another lie. tell the people what they want to hear, and make them think you meant what you said. when did actions start to not speak louder than words?

Mourning in Mosul By Eric?Umansky: "Meanwhile, while everybody notes that the White House promised that there will be an investigation. But TP doesn't see the papers mention a related point: There has been no independent or overarching investigation of the abuses, and the administration has opposed the creation of one. (The Post reported that back in May...on pg. A14.)"

what would one expect from a bunch of ex-enronites running our government?

GAO Again Finds Fault With the Federal Books (washingtonpost.com): "The U.S. government's financial record-keeping is so inadequate that congressional auditors said last week that they could not determine whether the federal books meet generally accepted accounting principles.
It was the eighth fiscal year in a row that the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, was unable to provide a definitive opinion on the quality of the federal government's consolidated financial statements. "

we got soldiers getting punished for following a presidial order.... what else is needed to make America wake the fuck up and smell the stench?

American Civil Liberties Union : FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques: "NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as 'torture' and a June 2004 'Urgent Report' to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up. "

we got soldiers getting punished for following a presidial order.... what else is needed to make America wake the fuck up and smell the stench?

American Civil Liberties Union : FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques: "NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as 'torture' and a June 2004 'Urgent Report' to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up. "

Newsday.com - AP News: "NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- The Social Security Administration is rejecting marriage documents issued for heterosexual couples in four communities that performed weddings for gay couples earlier this year.

The agency "

so TIME magazine named bush as man of the year. to see what distinction that brings, one should read this

the feel-good story of the year.

wanna bet that the Hamanns aren't republican?

DesMoinesRegister.com: "It's the talk of the town: Richard and Donna Hamann will pay the December electric bill for every person, school and business within the city limits of Anthon.

The city clerk is busily calculating the final amount, but it's likely to be just under $30,000.

'My little philosophy is everything I have is a gift from God and what I do with it is my gift to God,' said Richard Hamann, a retired cattle farmer born and raised in the northwest Iowa community.
Hamann, 75, wanted to build a $1 million wind turbine on his land and donate it to Anthon. The turbine would have covered a third of the town's electrical needs, but the city's contract with its power provider, Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, wouldn't allow it without a hefty penalty.

So Hamann figured the least he could do was pick up a month's tab for the town of 650."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Democrats have the moral answers, Republicans only offer moral rhetoric.
-Bill Gluba,
Davenport."

we have not only leaders who are incompetent, but also journalists who are key to making sure we do.

Slate's Today's Papers: On Monday, USAT's lead say Army National Guardsman in Iraq were a third more likely to be killed than their active-duty brethren. Yesterday, USAT said—again on Page One—that the military gave the paper the wrong numbers, and couldn't provide new ones. This morning's USAT does have the revised numbers, which show that Army National Guardsmen are less likely to be killed than active duty GIs. That walk-back is stuffed on page two.

the perfect thing to see in the morning over coffee.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "To future generations: When you wonder how your elders could have allowed the federal deficit to skyrocket in just three years, question the integrity of the U.S. intervention in Iraq, don't understand why individual freedoms slowly eroded and can't afford to travel to Europe because of a weak dollar, remember one phrase: good moral values.
-Jane E. Brown,
Granger."

nauseating to say the least.

Medal of Freedom: "President Bush is awarding the nation's highest civilian honor today to three men who were central to his Iraq policy. At a White House ceremony, Bush will present the Medal of Freedom to former CIA chief George Tenet, former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer and retired General Tommy Franks. Tenet left the CIA in July after seven years as director. He's been criticized for intelligence lapses leading to Nine-Eleven, but provided the president with evidence to back his case for ousting Saddam Hussein. Bremer oversaw creation of the interim Iraqi government -- and disbanding of the Iraqi army. Just yesterday Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer called the army move a mistake. Franks was the four-star Army general who commanded the US invasion force. After retiring, he endorsed Bush for re-election and campaigned on the president's behalf. "

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: December 12, 2004 - December 18, 2004 Archives:

They seem to be stipulating to their knowing about and being untroubled by a) Kerik's long-standing ties to an allegedly mobbed-up Jersey construction company (see yesterday's piece in the Daily News and tomorrow's in the Times), sub-a) that Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at said Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle." b) that Riker's Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch, c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss, d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago, e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, "former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero," or f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.

as i am unwilling to land on the journal's site, i'll just take TP's word for it (they're rarely ever wrong). because everything about this administration is straight up bushit.

Diss-information By Eric?UmanskyThe Journal notices inside that six months after the White House disavowed a Justice Department memo that essentially justified torture, the administration has not gotten around to giving intel agencies and the military a new set of legal guidelines for interrogations. Apparently, some in the administration don't think it's worth the potential trouble. "The question is," said one official, "Why do people have to write opinions about how far you can go?"

the people are beginning to see why us 'leftists' were screaming.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Regarding the Dec. 9 article, 'Rumsfeld Encounters Some 'Friendly Fire' ': As a father of an Army soldier who put his life on the line for W's father in the Persian Gulf War and is still on active duty, it appalls me to hear this representative of our government tell our troops to more or less suck it up and go out and get killed because this administration has squandered the money that was supposed to be used to protect you.
The show of such low regard for their lives sure doesn't sound like they are supporting our troops. I hope Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld doesn't have one of those 'Support Your Troops' stickers on his armored vehicle.

-Staff Sgt. Billy Dunbar,
Patterson.
***
When Donald Rumsfeld says, 'You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time,' he seems to have forgotten that the United States was not forced into action. We selected the time. We selected the place. We selected the equipment. Mistakes were made, and key figures in this administration continue to ignore or deny that fact. Rumsfeld often responds to questions from reporters with patronizing half-truths. That is annoying. When he does the same to questions addressed to him from soldiers in the field it is inexcusable.

-David Ketcher,
Des Moines.
***
The image of U.S. soldiers scavenging in trash dumps for makeshift armor is appalling. Donald Rumsfeld and other members of the administration chose to go to war pre-emptively with the Army they had. The United States had not been attacked. The administration could have chosen to wait until it did have the Army it wanted.

-Ruth Anne Petrak,
Des Moines.
***
If you think back, 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' ended with a cute "

wanna bet that the insurgency would disappear if only bush would announce an immediate withdrawal?

they're alllllll liars, cheats & thieves.

White House Puts Blame on Kerik (washingtonpost.com): "Giuliani, who recommended Kerik for the post, also called the White House yesterday and apologized. "

and then from the nytimes:

"I never had a conversation in which I vouched for him or was asked about this issue or any other issue," Mr. Giuliani said.

and there's more juice at the daily news where they delve into just how much of a crook this guy really is.

for future reference. the TP database

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."

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.'"

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 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."

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"

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.

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

why is nobody talking about how much this new intel bill is going to cost? they're all whining about this and that, all which are fine to be screaming about, but there's a noticeable absence of discussion of the costs of these provisions.

time will tell.

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.

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.'"

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"

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. "

kos on the flap with cbs and the ucc ads:

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.: "Where the hell are we, these days, when we don't run ads on television because they might possibly conflict with the President's religious notions? This isn't about gay marriage, or constitutional amendments. This is about a Church that welcomes all comers. That's it. That's the 'controversial' part of the ad. And apparently, CBS thinks that merely not being bigoted is enough to be 'controversial' given the current climate at the White House."

links on the taliban-u.s. relationship

Democratic Underground Forums - BBC: "US offers olive branch to Taleban": "If they disarm they won't be targeted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4062191.stm

Sheesh, UnoCal and others offered them more for an oil pipeline when they were in Texas in 1997.
http://www.rememberjohn.com/talibantexas.html

The Afghan oil plans were highly touted.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/TAL111A.html

And I know I'll never forget that the US public relations person for the Taliban was former CIA Director Richard McGarrah Helms niece, Laili Helms.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0124/ridgeway.php

Also many Taliban and al Queda got away to save some ISI operatives.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/HER206A.html

Afghanistan is a DYN CORP narco-state today imo."

from the guy who told the president it was a "SLAM DUNK" that iraq had wmd. now he wants to limit web surfing to a particular subset of the population.

when did America stop being the America i grew up to love?

Tenet calls for Internet security -- The Washington Times: "Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited to those who can show they take security seriously, he said. "

ok, so here is jerry falwell, the stalwart of hypocrisy, puritan through and through, on chris matthews' show saying that he chose to be heterosexual, yet never had to 'decide that'.... in his own words:

MSNBC - 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Dec. 2: "MATTHEWS: How old were you when you chose to be heterosexual?
FALWELL: Oh, I don?t remember that.
MATTHEWS: Well, you must, because you say it?s a big decision.
FALWELL: Well, I started dating when I was about 13.
MATTHEWS: And you had to decide between boys and girls. And you chose girls.
FALWELL: I never had to decide. I never thought about it. "

i guess this is making the rounds. as such, /me gives it a lil' nudge.

The new George W. Christ version of Psalm 23: "Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the path of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever"

within weeks after conyers asks GAO to investigate the election, look how the smear & destroy campaign gets started.

Conyers aide allegedly ordered politicking - (United Press International): "Detroit, MI, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- An aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers allegedly ordered his staff to drop their normal workload in favor of campaigning, possibly violating congressional rules"

the next time you hear the limpbaugh critters squealing about the u.n.'s oil-for-food program, remind them of this:

MSNBC - What happened to Iraq?s oil money?: "But NBC News has learned that a draft government audit faults the United States for ?inadequate stewardship? of up to $8.8 billion in oil money, handed over to Iraq?s ministries but never fully accounted for."

MSNBC - Seven Days of Hell: "With fewer Western journalists covering the war-torn nation, the true grim picture of continued violence isn?t getting out. Our correspondent reports on the last week."