Go ahead and vote in '08, if it will make you feel better...

I have argued long and hard about the critical importance of voting. Government is by far more responsive to those who show up at the polls than those who don't. Why is there so much fuss over "religious" voters, senior citizens, gun owners, etc.? Because they show up to vote at every election. The law often skews their way because government hears their voice. So I have encouraged casting your vote even if your candidate may not win, or is third party and has virtually no hope of winning. Vote for something or against something, but throw your opinion into the mix.

I'm having trouble making that argument these days.

The election mess in Ohio isn't just an Ohio mess. It's in many states, and been there for several elections (notably Florida in 2000). There's a concerted effort to suppress, ignore, or deny legal votes from being cast or counted. It's pretty obvious that the Republican Party has learned many lessons from the Nazis, but now we see they're learning from the Soviets too.

Josef Stalin (Communist dictator) quote: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."

Peter King (GOP congressman, during 2004 election) quote: "It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting."

A deadly mix of fascism and communism... all wrapped up with a crucifix for a bow. As Abraham Lincoln predicted, America is being eroded from within. And its the GOP doing it.

As things stand right now, it's hard to encourage anyone to join a "democratic" process that is so brazenly tampered with. A hundred million extra voters for Kerry would have done nothing to beat Bush this year. Not when the process is rigged so that Bush would get 51% of the vote no matter how the votes were cast.

Maybe by 2008 this will be fixed. But I doubt it. The media is asleep and the Democrats silent.

We have a banana republic, and it wasn't imposed militarily. That is the worst subversion of democracy of all.

Guantanamo is Bush's lack of character.

What Bush is doing in Guantanamo is telling of the man's complete lack of character, a deficiency he has by extention imposed upon our great nation as a whole.

This press briefing at the White House between press secretary McClellan and long time reporter Helen Thomas somewhat humorously shows how Bush is playing the hypocrite. Part of the exchange is about holding prisoners indefinitely without ever charging them. Part is about the Geneva Conventions. The rest is McClellan squirming with his vague language to not tell the truth.

But the crux is this: Bush insists two things. One, that the U.S. is adhering to Geneva Conventions regarding Guantanamo prisoners. And two, that the U.S. does not have to adhere to Geneva Conventions because the terrorists do not adhere to them.

By Bush logic (an oxymoron, I know), the police do not have to obey the law because criminals don't obey the law. To Bush, the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments only apply to people who DON'T get accused of a crime. Huh?

This goes to the heart of Bush's lack of character. Simply put, law-abiding people obey the law EVEN when it's not to their advantage. Good people do the right thing, period. This USED to be one of America's finest qualities. But that was back before the dark times, before the reign of Bush.

Thanks to Bush's lack of character, America is guilty of not living up to the standards we once set for ourselves and set for the rest of the world. There is no rule of law. There is only the King's Will.

I never thought Slick Willy would look so good. I guess it took someone as low as Bush to achieve it.

Liars have their own special place in Hell...

This story has caused a lot of pointless noise in right-wing media circles. The right wing hacks have been crying "the liberals have banned the Declaration of Independence"! Pure rubbish.

A California teacher was prohibited from using cobbled together excerpts from historical documents to push his extremist religious views on his students. The teacher obviously had been warned about this before, and was required to submit his "supplemental material" to the principal prior to using in class.

The DOI was not banned. Only the distorted excerpting of it.

Of course, that's a small detail in the eyes of FoxNews and right-wing radio. They'll bear any false witness in their pursuit of bashing liberals.

My question is, why to people put up with it?

A political nuclear bomb, if true.

Clinton Curtis, a Florida computer programmer and life-long Republican, has filed an affidavit accusing a prominent Florida Republican (Tom Feeney, now a member of U.S. Congress) of trying to hire him to write a software program that would allow Republicans to "switch" votes on electronic voting machines.

The story is a long way from being verified, but it's getting legs as they say. It has already moved beyond its basement origins to a House Judiciary Committee.

Two events are enough to convince me this has truth to it. One, no one was allowed to see the source code before being put in the machines (this was reported back in June). Two, all those "extra" votes in Ohio, particularly Cleveland. And a third will be if Ohio's Blackwell refuses to allow the voting machines to be cracked open. That'll be proof they're hiding something.

The original source for this story is Brad Friedmann at BradBlog.com. The BradBlog coverage was broken up into two sites because of heavy traffic. It starts here, and continues here.

Another reporter, Wayne Madsen, posted a slightly more conspiratorial version here, but it goes further than Curtis's affidavit alleges. Better to skip it until last. Instead, pick up the coverage at BlackBoxVoting.org, where well-known Bev Harris (who is hard at work in Ohio and elsewhere digging up the facts about voting irregularities) considers the details of the affidavit. (Note: Harris originally responded to Madsen's version as if it were Friedmann's, but has corrected her mistake on the website. She added a disclaimer saying Madsen's is "disinformation" and praises Friedmann's story.)

More excellent coverage, particularly from the programming angle, can be found here and here. The good thing about blog-type websites is that respondents often add valuable information and links (unfortunately amid a morass of inane blatherings...).

Curtis adds to his affidavit with comments on this web page. It begins with specifics about the affidavit, but then wanders into general political commentary. He includes a replica of the software prototype he created.

Bush: nations shouldn't be united, they should be subservient

We are seeing a key phase of the neo-Con Republican agenda in play right now. To fulfill their “American hegemony” (read: US dominates the world), they need to neuter the United Nations.

Remember how the U.S. preached for 50 years that the U.N. was THE place for nations to settle their problems? Well, that was a sham. It was a scheme to bolster world support against the Soviet Union. There was no underlying “good neighbor” policy. Now that there is no USSR to challenge America, the GOP intends to BECOME the empire(s) we have always condemned.

Right now, Republicans are orchestratedly appearing on TV shows, radio, and print media outlets to condemn UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and blame him for the so-called “oil for food scandal.” The oil for food program was set up so that Iraq could make enough money to keep its people fed, etc. It was a humanitarian concession, because sanctions were causing (ultimately a million people, half were children) innocent Iraqis to suffer. Saddam was manipulating that loophole to gain billions for his own use.

The GOP wants Americans to blame Annan and the UN Security Council members who did not support Bush’s invasion of Iraq, namely France, Germany, and China. The purpose is to run out Annan as Secretary General because Annan is not afraid to speak up against America’s bad foreign policy. Bush hopes they can put in a puppet Sec. Gen. who will turn the U.N. into nothing more than an organ of his administration.

This is not to say that Saddam getting around sanctions isn’t a bad thing. But to cry foul now is two-faced. Where were the Republicans (and America) when Saddam was building palaces with that money? Clinton did nothing, but neither did the GOP. All were silent.

What I find hypocritical is that all the parties in the scandal, Iraq, the buyer nations, and secret middle men, are being condemned as criminals. But, when the shoe is on the other foot, when Halliburton uses middle men to illegally trade with Iran despite sanctions, there is NO ACTION by this administration. If France is guilty, how is Halliburton not guilty?

Because the “crime” in question is irrelevant. The GOP wants Annan out and the U.N. neutralized.