Old Hippie Chic's Rants

If they're gonna keep throwing OUR ballots (paper, cyber, hung chads, whatever) OUT, let's just
throw THEM out ~! Greg "every-vote-counts-so-count-every-vote" Palast has really got a burr under his saddle blankie, again. But i don't blame him. Wasn't it Nicaraugua where we had to send Jimmy Carter and the UN poll watchers to try and UN-rig elections? I heard last nite that with the right mix of red-blue states switching, both Kerry and "W" could get the SAME number of electoral votes and throw the whole deal into the House of (non)Representatives. Of course, I've long been majorily opposed to even having an "electoral college".

Madame Butterfly Flies Off with Ballots * Florida Fixed Again? Absentee Ballots Go Absent
by Greg Palast

Sunday, August 29, 2004.

On Friday, Theresa LePore, Supervisor of Elections in Palm Beach, candidate for re-election as Supervisor of Elections, chose to supervise her own election, no one else allowed. This Tuesday, Florida votes for these nominally non-partisan posts.

You remember Theresa, "Madame Butterfly," the one whose ballots brought in the big vote for Pat Buchanan in the Jewish precincts in November 2000. Then she failed to do the hand count that would have changed the White House from Blue to Red.

This time, Theresa's in a hurry to get to the counting. She began tallying absentee ballots on Friday in her own re-election race. Not to worry: the law requires the Supervisor of Elections in each county to certify poll-watchers to observe the count.

But Theresa has a better idea. She refused to certify a single poll-watcher from opponents' organizations despite the legal requirement she do so by last week. She'll count her own votes herself, thank you very much!

The fact is that Florida counties using touch-screens have reported a known error rate 600% greater than the alternative, paper ballots read by optical scanners. And those errors have occurred -- surprise! -- overwhelmingly in African-American precincts.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His article on vote manipulation in Florida for Harper's Magazine, was nominated for a 2002 National Magazine Award.

On September 28, Disinfo/Ryko will release on DVD his film, "Bush Family Fortunes," based on Palast's investigative reports for BBC Television -- described as "courageous reporting." (Michael Moore) and "twisted and maniacal" (Katherine Harris). View a 2-minute preview at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm

Sign up for Greg Palast's elections investigation reports at http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm

This is L*O*N*G, but since it's the weekend... maybe you'll have (take?) time to enjoy it all -- i sure did. Besides, it's time for Saturday Sillies here, and M. Moore does SUCH a good job -- if you like a little sarcasm (which i must). I can't wait to see his comments on the GOP pardy. c u

I know you and I have had our differences in the past, and I realize I am the one who started this whole mess about "who did what" during Vietnam when I brought up that "deserter" nonsense back in January. But I have to hand it to you on what you have uncovered about John Kerry and his record in Vietnam. Kerry has tried to pass himself off as a war hero, but thanks to you and your friends, we now know the truth.

First of all, thank you for pointing out to all of us that Mr. Kerry was never struck by a BULLET. It was only SHRAPNEL that entered his body! I did not know that! Hell, what's the big deal about a bunch of large, sharp, metal shards ripping open your flesh? That happens to all of us! In my opinion, if you want a purple heart, you'd better be hit with a bullet -- with your name on it!

Secondly, thank you for sending Bob Dole out there and letting us know that Mr. Kerry, though wounded three times, actually "never spilled blood." When you are in the debates with Kerry, turn to him and say, "Dammit, Mr. Kerry, next time you want a purple heart, you better spill some American red blood! And I don't mean a few specks like those on O.J.'s socks -- we want to see a good pint or two of blood for each medal. In fact, I would have preferred that you had bled profusely, a big geyser of blood spewing out of your neck or something!" Then throw this one at him: "Senator Kerry, over 58,000 brave Americans gave their lives in Vietnam -- but YOU didn't. You only got WOUNDED! What do you have to say for yourself???" Lay that one on him and he won't know what to do.

And thanks, also, Mr. Bush, for exposing the fact that Mr. Kerry might have actually WOUNDED HIMSELF in order to get those shiny medals. Of course he did! How could the Viet Cong have hit him -- he was on a SWIFT boat! He was going too fast to be hit by enemy fire. He tried to blow himself up three different times just so he could go home and run for president someday. It's all so easy to see, now, what he was up to.

What would we do without you, Mr. Bush? Criticize you as we might, when it comes to pointing out other men's military records, there is no one who can touch your prowess. In 2000, you let out the rumor that your opponent John McCain might be "nuts" from the 5 years he spent in a POW camp. Then, in the 2002 elections, your team compared triple-amputee Sen. Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, and that cost him the election. And now you are having the same impact on war hero John Kerry. Since you (oops, I mean "The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth!") started running those ads, Kerry's polls numbers have dropped (with veterans, he has lost 18 points in the last few weeks).

Some people have said "Who are you, Mr. Bush, to attack these brave men considering you yourself have never seen combat -- in fact, you actively sought to avoid it." What your critics fail to understand is that even though your dad got you into a unit that would never be sent to Vietnam -- and even though you didn't show up for Guard duty for at least a year -- at least you were still IN FAVOR of the Vietnam War! Cowards like Clinton felt it was more important to be consistent (he opposed the war, thus he refused to go) than to be patriotic and two-faced.

The reason that I think you know so much about other men's war wounds is because, during your time you in the Texas Air National Guard, you suffered so many of them yourself. Consider the paper cut you received on September 22, 1972, while stationed in Alabama, working on a Senate campaign for your dad's friend (when you were supposed to be on the Guard base). A campaign brochure appeared from nowhere, ambushing your right index finger, and blood trickled out onto your brand new argyle sweater.

Then there was the incident with the Crazy Glue when your fraternity brothers visited you one weekend at the base and glued your lips together while you were "passed out." Though initially considered "friendly fire," it was later ruled that you suffered severe post traumatic stress disorder from the assault and required certain medicinal attention -- which, it seems, was provided by those same fraternity brethren.

But nothing matched your heroism when, on July 2, 1969, you sustained a massive head injury when enemy combatants from another Guard unit dropped a keg of Coors on your head during a reconnaissance mission at a nearby all-girls college. Fortunately, the cool, smooth fluids that poured out of the keg were exactly what was needed to revive you.

That you never got a purple heart for any of these incidents is a shame. I can fully appreciate your anger at Senator Kerry for the three he received. I mean, Kerry was a man of privilege, he could have gotten out just like you. Instead, he thinks he's going to gain points with the American people bragging about how he was getting shot at every day in the Mekong Delta. Ha! Is that the best he can do? Hell, I hear gunfire every night outside my apartment window! If he thinks he is going to impress anyone with the fact that he volunteered to go when he could have spent the Vietnam years on the family yacht, he should think again. That only shows how stupid he was! True-blue Americans want a president who knows how to pull strings and work the system and get away with doing as little work as possible!

So, to make it up to you, I have written some new ads you can use on TV. People will soon tire of the swift boat veterans and you are going to need some fresh, punchier material. Feel free to use any of these:

ANNOUNCER: "When the bullets were flying all around him in Vietnam, what did John Kerry do? He said he leaned over the boat and 'pulled a man out of the river.' But, as we all know, men don't live in the river -- fish do. John Kerry knows how to tell a big fish tale. What he won't tell you is that when the enemy was shooting at him, he ducked. Do you want a president who will duck? Vote Bush."

ANNOUNCER: "Mr. Kerry's biggest supporter, Sen. Max Cleland, claims to have lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam. But he still has one arm! How did that happen? One word: Cowardice. When duty called, he was unwilling to give his last limb. Is that the type of selfishness you want hanging out in the White House? We think not. Vote for the man who would be willing to give America his right frontal lobe. Vote Bush."

Hope these help, Mr. Bush. And remember, when the American death toll in Iraq hits 1,000 during the Republican convention, be sure to question whether those who died really did indeed "die" -- or were they just trying to get their face on CNN's nightly tribute to fallen heroes? The sixteen who've died so far this week were probably working hand in hand with the Kerry campaign to ruin your good time in New York. Stay consistent, sir, and always, ALWAYS question the veracity of anyone who risks their life for this country. It's the least they deserve.

PS. George, I know you said you don't read the newspaper, but USA Today has given me credentials to the Republican convention to write a guest column each day next week (Tues.-Fri.). If you don't want to read it, you and I will be in the same building so maybe I could come by and read it to you? Lemme know...

I didn't either, til a friend sent me John Joseph Kennedy's "platform" as a Democratic write-in candidate ~! Now HERE's something for us to chew on, isn't it?

2. IRAQ: U.S. Occupation to Cease--United Nations to Rebuild. Right the Wrong!

3. STOP THE WAR AGAINST CHILDREN! Non-Violence in Schools. Non-Violence in Children’s Television Programming, Publishing, Games and Websites. Criminal prosecution of everyone that violates or contributes to this abusive violence against children. Far-Reaching Child Abuse Programs for Prevention of Child & Domestic Abuse. Healing of Innocent Children who are Victims of Child Abuse. This is of the utmost importance and lies at the very heart of the spiritual malady plaguing America. I have worked for the last 20 years as a citizen, Board Member of San Francisco Child Abuse Council (1985-1986), an activist, writer, motivational speaker, and producer on all of these issues. I have a profound awareness and understanding of these issues, and a comprehensive, non-negotiable plan to remedy them. Right the Wrong!

4. NON-VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA-All Genres! As President I will initiate an ecliptic program to end the prevailing violence in the media, which permeates every aspect of our lives and mind. Mind is one of the greatest powers there is. Thought is our use of this power. We must order our minds to think positively and constructively at all times. End the fictitious scripting in the news media! Truth, and only Truth, will set us free! Right the Wrong!

5. COMPASSIONATE MISSION TO END THE WAR ON HOMELESSNESS: Rebuild the infrastructure of America First dollar for dollar what has been allotted for the war in Iraq. We must begin with the homeless, the poor and the tens of millions of Americans who are only a few paychecks away from being homeless! Right the Wrong!

6. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE/HEALTH: It is appalling that the richest nation in the World has 44 Million Americans without Health Care. Affordable Health Care for All! As President, I will also fight to find a cure for A.I.D.S. I will support and promote the ultimate care of A.I.D.S patients and those afflicted with the HIV virus both in America and globally. I will lift the ban on stem cell research. Right the Wrong!

7. RESTORAL OF OUR CIVIL & CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: As President, I will totally repeal the fraudulent “Patriot Act”, with a special focus on individuals Rights to Privacy. I whole-heartedly support the legal recognition of same-sex marriages and equal rights for all mankind. Right the Wrong!

8. ENVIRONMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Protect the oceans and her inhabitants! Permanent ban on Low Frequency Sonar Testing, and International Whaling. Strictest enforcement of the laws to prevent toxic waste, toxic dumping and toxic industries. Right the Wrong!

9. REBUILD INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Repair the Damage. Restore America’s Dignity and Integrity in the Eyes of the World. Right the Wrong!

10. SPIRIT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP: In each of us is a creative spirit! As your President I will restore the arts in schools. I will also encourage, support and finance the Arts and the bright ideas and business ventures of the American People. Renew and rebuild the American Dream through creativity, the Arts and Small Businesses. We must always celebrate the successes of all Americans; not tear them down once they have achieved it. Right the Wrong!

"There is a resounding, widening gap in this election. There is something that is profoundly missing, something that is not resonating with real people in both parties and across the board. There is a hunger for truth, honesty, strength, compassion and real leadership. The American people are intelligent and we can hear what is true and what isn't. That magical spark is missing! I have the vision and the plan for a new America; a New Humanity that will ignite that spark. It is the spark of life borne in the human heart. It is the flame in the heart of every American, young and old alike; all races, all religions, all cultures, all sexes, gay or straight, democrat or republican and it is America's responsibility to enkindle that spark and universally ignite the world!"

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, GO NEGATIVE
Bush Tries to Besmirch Kerry's Environmental Record

It may seem downright nutty for President Bush to be trashing John Kerry's environmental record, considering that Bush has earned the ire of just about every enviro in the country while Kerry's green credentials are well-established. But that's exactly what Bush is doing. This month, his campaign has barraged the media with a steady stream of attacks on Kerry's environmental positions. Is there a method to this madness? You bet. Muckraker reveals all -- on the Grist Magazine website.

in Grist: Bush attacks Kerry on environment -- in Muckraker
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck081904.asp?source=weekly>

sign up: Receive word by email each time a new Muckraker column hits the scene
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/signup/subgrist.asp?source=weekly>

GRAND OLD PROTEST -- Activists Divided Over Protest Tactics at GOP Convention

Many enviros will be among the hundreds of thousands of protesters flooding into New York City at the end of the month to protest the Republican National Convention -- or rather, to protest environmental rollbacks, corporate cronyism, tax cuts for the rich, indifference to poverty, abortion restrictions, the Iraq war, abrogation of civil liberties, racism, and the annoying adhesive strips on new compact discs (they're impossible to fully remove!). Some veteran activists, however, are concerned about the stated intentions of some radical
types to engage in property destruction and violence; they worry about a repeat of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when the televised sight of long-haired protesters clashing with police scared
Average Jane and Joe enough to help propel Nixon into the White House. "The potential for violence is worrisome, and the potential to have it boomerang against progressive policies is great," said Greenpeace USA Executive Director John Passacantando.
straight to the source: Salon.com, Michelle Goldberg, 17 Aug 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2854>

MORE pot-kettle politics... this time from the other side:

Shortly after reading the following e-mail content, I happened to look at the label of a jar of Heinz sandwich slice pickles. Yep.... Made in Mexico" Check some of your Heinz products. "Sen. John Kerry keeps talking about U.S. corporations leaving this country and setting up shop in foreign countries, taking thousands of jobs with them. He is right, because that has happened. However, he is trying to blame it on George W. Bush. As far as I know, Bush has not moved one factory out of this country because he is not the owner of a single factory. That cannot be said about Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kerry's own 32 factories in Europe and 18 in Asia and the Pacific.

In addition, their company, the Heinz Company, leases (4) factories in Europe and (4) in Asia. Also, they own (27) factories in North America, some of which are in Mexico and the Caribbean. (80%) of Heinz products are made overseas. I wonder how many hundreds of American workers lost their jobs when these plants relocated in foreign countries. I also wonder if the workers in Mexico and Asia are paid the same wages and benefits as workers in the United States. Of course they're not. However, Kerry demands that other companies that relocate should pay the same benefits they did in the U.S. Why does he not demand this of the Heinz Company, since he is married to the owner?

If Kerry is elected, will he and his wife close all those foreign factories and bring all those jobs back to America? Of course they won't. They're making millions off that cheap labor.

(Where is Diogenes when we really NEED HIM -- to take his lamp and go looking for a few honorable men -- or women -0- to be in politics/??)

FLEECING AMERICA'S SOLDIERS

8/16/2004 -- from Jim Hightower --
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=51712

It's been said that you don't know what hell is until you've had an insurance salesman in your living room, prattling on eternally about term life annuities.

But I've recently learned about a deeper level of hell reserved for insurance company hucksters who – get this – are ripping off America's young soldiers who are headed into the dread of the Iraqi war. Companies such as American Amicable Life Insurance have weaseled their way to our basic-training bases where they pose as semi-official military agents. Then gather boot-camp grunts into so-called classes where the unscrupulous agents proceed to pick the pockets of underpaid soldiers.

The fleecing is presented by the insurance companies and the military as a compulsory "briefing" on personal finances. With superior officers in the room, the agents talk of "investments" and walk the unsuspecting troops through pages of paperwork, getting them to sign blind authorizations to deduct money from their meager monthly paychecks.

The briefings don't mention that the 19- and 20-year-old soldiers are not really buying investments, but life insurance. Nor is it pointed out that they will pay far more in costly premiums than they'll ever draw out. Also, the insurance is unnecessary, since nearly every soldier is covered by a low-cost military policy that pays 10-times what these private scams do.

It's bad enough that our young men and women are thrust into a war of lies in Iraq, but it's a moral abomination that insurance gougers are allowed to prey on them at home. Yet, not only does the Pentagon turn a blind eye to this sleazy scam, but so does congress – the lobbying front for the companies, the American Council of Life Insurers, has used its campaign donations to get lawmakers to block any effort to stop the corporate thievery.

These companies, lobbyists, congress critters, and military officials are participating in crass war profiteering – and they deserve a special place in hell.

Do we have SLICK leaders or WHAT??? They accused Ronnie Reagan of being 'teflon-coated', Clinton was "slick willie", but you REALLY got to watch the bush crowd -- talk about the pot making disparaging remarks about the color of the kettle ~! One of the first lessons i had in "ethics" -- at my granny's apron edge -- was that telling a HALF truth was worse than the whole thing -- because people wouldn't know WHICH half TO believe -- well, seems bushie was spawned in a test tube (no grannie to instruct him) because I've NEVER seen such a load of half lies being promulgated as the 'real deal' ~! Read on for just one example.

===============================
THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
< www.Misleader.org >
===============================

BUSH'S CIA NOMINEE TRIED TO GUT KEY INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS

President Bush has repeatedly criticized his opponent[1] for joining with Republicans to slightly reduce funding for intelligence after the end of the Cold War.[2] But a new report shows that the President recently nominated a CIA Director who tried to make far deeper cuts in intelligence, even as terrorist attacks against the United States increased.

Despite the known threat of terrorism, Bush nominated Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) to be the new CIA Director - a man who has led the effort to cut the very intelligence priorities that are most critical to the fight against terrorism. As the Washington Post reports, Goss actually "sponsored legislation that would have cut intelligence personnel by 20 percent in the late 1990s." Goss insisted on these cuts even after the 1993 World Trade Center attack when America became aware of the serious terrorist threat. As the story notes, the cuts Goss supported are far larger than those proposed by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and were specifically targeted at "human intelligence." That is the very same priority which the 9/11 Commission and other independent experts say was lacking in the days and months leading up to the 9/11 attacks.[3]

The revelations about Goss come only a few weeks after similar evidence came to light showing that Vice President Cheney has also repeatedly tried to stop intelligence reforms and cut critical defense programs. For instance, in 1992, Cheney led the effort to block the very same intelligence reforms the 9/11 Commission said would have made the United States better prepared to deal with the threat of al Qaeda. Similarly, while the Bush-Cheney campaign has attacked Kerry for supposedly reducing defense spending,[4] it was Cheney himself in 2000 who admitted that as Defense Secretary, he "did in fact significantly reduce the overall size of the U.S. military."[5] And in 1990, it was Cheney who went to Capitol Hill to tout his effort to slash defense, bragging about "programs that I have recommended for termination."[6]

Sources:

1. "Bush chides Kerry on intelligence cuts," Washington Times, 3/09/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=51644.
2. "Bush Strains Facts Re: Kerry's Plan To Cut Intelligence Funding in
'90's," FactCheck.org, 3/15/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=51645.
3. "Goss Backed '95 Bill to Slash Intelligence," Washington Post, 8/24/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=51646.
4. "Remarks by the Vice President at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
and Museum," WhiteHouse.gov, 3/17/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=51647.
5. "latimes.com: Cheney acknowledges defense cuts began on his watch,"
CNN.com, 8/24/00,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=51648.
6. Congressional Testimony, 2/01/90.

Visit www.Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. »

===========================================================

Subscribe to the Daily Mislead! Go to http://www.misleader.org and enter your e-mail address in the "Receive the Daily Mislead" box in the top-left corner of the page.

"The sense of certainty that Bush affords himself by donning the trappings of fundamentalism goes beyond the relative black-and-white clarity of the dogma of his chosen faith. He cloaks himself in the certainty of being good, absolving the self of responsibility even for destructive acts, disregarding the possibility that he could make a mistake." From his book, Bush on the Couch by Justin A. Frank

coming on the heels... of the second fire set at the Odessa, TX Unitarian Universalist church -- where i've considered myself a fellow traveler if not full-fledged MEMBER for a good 40 years, this is NOT funny...

Pin Heads

If enacted, the Constitution Restoration Act will effectively transform the United States into a theocracy, where the arbitrary dictates of a "higher power" can override law.

By Chris Floyd
Published: March 12, 2004

One of the sticking points in crafting the just-signed "interim constitution" of the Pentagon cash cow formerly known as Iraq was the question of acknowledging Islam as the fundamental source of law. After much wrangling, a fudge was worked out that cites the Koran as a fundamental source of legal authority, with the proviso that no law can be passed that conflicts with Islam.

We in the enlightened West smile at such theocratic quibbling, of course: Imagine, national leaders insisting that a modern state be governed solely by divine authority! Governments guaranteeing the right of religious extremists to impose their views on society! What next -- debates about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Oh, those poor, ignorant barbarians in Babylon!

Well, wipe that smile off your face. For even now, the ignorant barbarians in Washington are pushing a law through Congress that would "acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty [and] government" in the United States. What's more, it would forbid all legal challenges to government officials who use the power of the state to enforce their own view of "God's sovereign authority." Any judge who dared even hear such a challenge could be removed from office.

The "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004" is no joke; it was introduced last month by some of the Bush Regime's most powerful Congressional sycophants. If enacted, it will effectively transform the American republic into a theocracy, where the arbitrary dictates of a "higher power" -- as interpreted by a judge, policeman, bureaucrat or president -- can override the rule of law.

The Act -- drafted by a minion of television evangelist Pat Robertson -- is the fruit of decades of work by a group of extremists known broadly as "Dominionists." Their openly expressed aim is to establish "biblical rule" over every aspect of society -- placing "the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere under Christ the King." Or as Attorney General John Ashcroft -- the nation's chief law enforcement officer -- has often proclaimed: "America has no king but Jesus!"
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/03/12/120.html

and then there is ...

"Iraqi women were once among the most highly educated and professional women in the Middle East." ...

"Girls and women are now facing a major learning gap and there has been a sharp decline in adult female literacy. Today, almost one year after the war, which was supposed to bring "liberation" to all Iraqis, Iraqi women are even worse off. Rather than an improvement in the quality of their lives, we have read about widespread violence against women. The lack of security and proper policing, in the early months, led to chaos and growing crime rates against women". by Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta, Hindustan Times

Saddam was no protector of women, but they have faced many new miseries and more violence and threats since he fell. One of the threats is a highly potential move from the more secular orientation of the Baathist rule to a more religious orientation of the interim or later the new government. The proposal to move to Sharia law was just the start. The exclusion of women from drafting the new constitution was another.

source: http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=1678

I keep lookin', but i ain't findin'... anything nice to say about bushie, let alone LIKE about our un-elected (NOT)commander-in-chief. A CBS News tally shows that President Bush is now making his 38th visit to his Prairie Chapel ranch since taking office. Add up the number of full or partial days he has been there - it comes out to 254.

That's about 20 percent of his presidency. Add in his time at Camp David and the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and the percentage more than doubles. And the White House is self-conscious about it... Well, they SHOULD be a wee bit self-conscious. But then when you have Heir Karl Rove doing your heavy lifting, behind the scenes to smear the opposition and Dick "Lon Boy" Cheney pulling your strings, who needs to work more than 60% of the time?

Speaking of Cheney, here's more "Spin Control" from the master: Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain - LINK - It's Willie Horton all over again. The Bush family is subjecting Americans to psychological operations, only the level of sophistication and deception is an order of magnitude higher than it was in 1988. And it could turn the election, if not used effectively in rebuttal. - Here's how it works, and how Dick Cheney just used it masterfully:

Quote:
- There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. -- Ayn Rand

WHY WORK??? THAT'S what i ask myself when i read things like the following -- but then i've lived SOOooo low on the food chain, far below/under the official 'povery' level for so long that i'm 'used ot it' -- sorta like getting used to sharp stick under a fingernail, but eventually, the pain dulls if it doesn't deaden totally. Even so, back in my drinkin' daze, i still had the good fortune and foresight to invest in real estate -- real property as they call it in law school -- that i've always been able to hold title to the dirt associated w/ my zip code and keep a usually leak-proof (altho leak prone) roof over my head, sans any longterm mortgage. Guess i was lucky ~! But for those not so fortunate, read on --

IMHO it's a crime and a shame that 'minimum wage' jobs don't afford a worker a LIVING wage (under bushie -- and except in Santa Fe, NM where $8.00 plus an hour is the LAW for minimum wage) or many benes. At least, one of MY benefits is being able to watch the hummingbirds fight it out over the feeder outside my window near the 'puter, and they often take turns perching on a piece of bailing wire i curved and attached to the roof of the lanai as a 'landing' or rest spot -- 8 ft. to hummers all day long -- not bad.

This Monday: Bush Overtime Cuts Begin

from Working Families e-Activist:

For more than a year we've fought to save the right to overtime pay for the millions of America's workers targeted by the Bush administration's overtime pay take-away. Responding to the avalanche of letters, faxes and phone calls you've sent, three times senators and representatives have said 'No' to these pay cuts with bipartisan votes. But each time the White House, working with Republican leaders in Congress, has blocked the legislation that would have saved workers' right to overtime pay.

On Monday, Aug. 23, the overtime pay take-away-the biggest pay cut in America's history-goes into effect. Employers will begin to decide who loses the right to overtime pay at their workplaces. Unfortunately, they'll have some help from Uncle Sam. The U.S. Department of Labor will be using your tax dollars to offer "assistance" to companies trying to figure this out.

This is an outrage. And we will not let this day pass without making our voices heard.

On Monday, we will launch an important new petition to demonstrate our outrage to the media, Congress and the Bush administration. We're going to demand they repeal this massive pay cut for America's working families.

Our fight doesn't end on Monday. It begins again and will last through Election Day, Nov. 2, and beyond until we reclaim the right to overtime pay for all workers.

While we keep fighting, we'll be assessing the price working families are paying for Bush's overtime pay take-away. Fortunately, many union members will be protected by their contracts. And now, nonunion workers can turn to a new organization for help-Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO for nonunion folks.

Working America is launching two new Internet resources right now to help people cope with the Bush overtime pay take-away.

Overtime Pay Take-Away Test from Working America

This short online questionnaire from Working America will help you figure out if your employer may try to take away your right to overtime pay. Please click below now to check out the test.

http://www.workingamerica.org/issues/ot_quiz.cfm

Ask a Lawyer from Working America

Through Working America, a labor lawyer with expertise in wage and hour laws is available to you via the Internet. Submit your question and Working America will help you get an answer--for free. This doesn't substitute for legal advice, but it helps. Just click below to get started.

http://www.workingamerica.org/issues/ot_askalawyer_main.cfm

Stay tuned for Labor Day actions and opportunities to make a difference when Congress returns in September. We'll be looking for thousands of volunteers and we'll need your help!

Thanks for all you do. Look for more e-mails soon.

In Solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
August 19, 2004

The cyber is mightier than the smear... used to be the pen was stronger than the sword, but in today's world, we better use cyberspace -- it's faster. I hate to get THIS political on the blog, and i really am much more anti-bush than pro-kerry, but since he's our only other choice (unless someone will finance me a move to some tropical island...) guess i'll pass this along AND write a few letters to reactionary editors of fish-wrap (ie newspapers) in this area. Missed bushie on Larry King -- would have loved to have seen THAT one -- doncha just know their boy was relieved when that hour was up and he could go change his undies?? I can hardly wait for the 'presidential' debates.

"I am speaking with software engineer and research scientist Jim Hoffman. Today's show, Your eyes don't lie, common sense, physics and the World Trade Center Collapses. I'm Bonnie Faulkner. This is Guns and Butter. (visit our website www.GunsAndButter.net)

JH: Even with investigators who talk about other aspects of 911, such as the various impossibilities of the hijacker scenario, the various competing theories about the Pentagon attack, and so forth, but meanwhile it seems very clear to a lot of people what happened in Manhattan, and yet there's this surprising, I think, silence even among the skeptics to really take on what happened and really call this a demolition and really expose it. Because what I emphasize is that this event in Manhattan was the core target of 911. It was the core of the psychological assault of the attack, and it was the event that really shocked people. I mean the Pentagon was shocking in that what you would think be the most heavily defended building in the United States, or in the World for that that matter, was only eleven miles from Andrews Air Force Base with two combat-ready fighter wings, was hit almost an hour and a half after the crisis began and they couldn't even get up and interceptor to protect the Pentagon. I mean that's pretty shocking. But note that the Pentagon attack happened before the first of the tower collapses, so I think if you consider the whole event from the point of view of a psychologically engineered attack in order to shock people and to make people feel disempowered and to make people feel afraid and sign off on whatever the government wants to do in terms of international aggression or whatever.

There are two Americas today. You could see this division in a little-noticed action this spring in the House of Representatives. Republicans in the House approved new tax credits for the children of families earning as much as $309,000 a year - families that already enjoy significant benefits from earlier tax cuts - while doing next to nothing for those at the low end of the income scale. This, said The Washington Post in an editorial called "Leave No Rich Child Behind," is "bad social policy, bad tax policy, and bad fiscal policy. You'd think they'd be embarrassed but they're not."

Nothing seems to embarrass the political class in Washington today. Not the fact that more children are growing up in poverty in America than in any other industrial nation; not the fact that millions of workers are actually making less money today in real dollars than they did 20 years ago; not the fact that working people are putting in longer and longer hours just to stay in place; not the fact that while we have the most advanced medical care in the world, nearly 44 million Americans - eight out of 10 of them in working families - are uninsured and cannot get the basic care they need.

Nor is the political class embarrassed by the fact that the gap between rich and poor is greater than it's been in 50 years - the worst inequality among all Western nations. They don't seem to have noticed that we have been experiencing a shift in poverty. For years it was said that single jobless mothers are down there at the bottom. For years it was said that work, education, and marriage is how they move up the economic ladder. But poverty is showing up where we didn't expect it - among families that include two parents, a worker, and a head of the household with more than a high school education. These are the newly poor. These are the people our political and business class expects to climb out of poverty on an escalator moving downward.

For years now a small fraction of American households have been garnering an extreme concentration of wealth and income while large corporations and financial institutions have obtained unprecedented levels of economic and political power over daily life. In 1960, the gap in terms of wealth between the top 20 percent and the bottom 20 percent was 30-fold. Four decades later it is more than 75-fold. Such concentrations of wealth would be far less of an issue if the rest of society was benefiting proportionately and equality was growing. That's not the case. As an organization called The Commonwealth Foundation Center for the Renewal of American Democracy sets forth in well-documented research, working families and the poor "are losing ground under economic pressures that deeply affect household stability, family dynamics, social mobility, political participation, and civic life."

And household economics "is not the only area where inequality is growing in America." We are also losing the historic balance between wealth and commonwealth. The report goes on to describe "a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power." That drive is succeeding, with drastic consequences for an equitable access to and control of public resources, the lifeblood of any democracy. From land, water, and other natural resources to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and even to politics itself, a broad range of the American commons is undergoing a powerful shift in the direction of private control.

And what is driving this shift? Contrary to what you learned in civics class in high school, it is not the so-called "democratic debate." That is merely a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on - the none-too-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power so that you can divide up the spoils. If you want to know what's changing America, follow the money.

Veteran Washington reporter Elizabeth Drew says "the greatest change in Washington over the past 25 years - in its culture, in the way it does business and the ever-burgeoning amount of business transactions that go on here - has been in the preoccupation with money." Jeffrey Birnbaum, who covered Washington for nearly 20 years for the Wall Street Journal, put it even more strongly: "[Campaign cash] has flooded over the gunwales of the ship of state and threatens to sink the entire vessel. Political donations determine the course and speed of many government actions that deeply affect our daily lives."

It is widely accepted in Washington today that there is nothing wrong with a democracy dominated by the people with money. But of course there is. Money has democracy in a stranglehold and is suffocating it. During his brief campaign in 2000, before he was ambushed by the dirty tricks of the Religious Right in South Carolina and big money from George W. Bush's wealthy elites, John McCain said elections today are nothing less than an "influence-peddling scheme in which both parties compete to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder."

That's the shame of politics today. The consequences: "When powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But it is ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price, and most of them never see it coming," according to Time magazine. Time concludes that America now has "government for the few at the expense of the many."

That's why so many people are turned off by politics. It's why we can't put things right. And it's wrong. Hear the great Justice Learned Hand on this: "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: 'Thou shalt not ration justice.'" He got it right: The rich have the right to buy more homes than anyone else. They have the right to buy more cars, more clothes, or more vacations than anyone else. But they don't have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else.

Study says tax burden grows on middle class
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2734398
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden from the nation's rich to middle-class families, according to a study released today by the Congressional Budget Office. The tax rate declined across all income levels -- but more so in the top brackets, the report said.

People in the top 20 percent of incomes, averaging $182,700 a year, saw their share of federal taxes decline from 65.3 percent of total payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year, according to the study by congressional budget analysts. In contrast, middle-class taxpayers -- with incomes ranging from $51,500 to $75,600 -- bear a greater tax burden. Those making an average of $75,600 had the biggest jump in their share of taxes, from 18.5 percent of all payments in 2001 to 19.5 percent this year.

The study, requested by congressional Democrats in May, is expected to provide fodder for the presidential campaign over the fairness of more than $1 trillion in tax cuts Bush has pushed through Congress since taking office. "George W. Bush keeps trying to mislead Americans into thinking we're turning the corner, but truth is that he is turning his back on middle-class families," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said. "The Bush policies are exacerbating the squeeze that working families have been feeling for the last four years."

There was no immediate comment from the White House. The study found that the effective tax rate for the top 1 percent of taxpayers dropped from 33 percent in 2001 to 26.7 percent this year, a decline of 19 percent. The middle 20 percent of taxpayers saw a decline of 4 percent. The study is based on figures in 2001 and assumes no changes in wealth distribution from increases in income, dividends or capital gains.

I'm BAAAAAAACK ~! and better than ever ~! Lil 'puter is glad to be 'om and i'm glad to HAVE her back home ~! And starting off the weekend with a long post from Greg Palast's e-newsletter -- share THIS with all your bushie-backing friends and get an explanation outta them, just WHY (how?) do they support that guy?

One Year Later ... Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House
Saturday, August 14, 2004
by Greg Palast

One year ago today, the lights went out. Even when the Big Blackout ended, the power pirates who have us by the bulbs kept us in the dark, fibbing, fabricating and faking their way through a series of bogus excuses for a disaster created by greed overload.

Instead of fixing the system, the fix is in. We now know that goof-ups and bone-headed moves started the power outage rolling; but it's spread, from a few tree branches out of Ohio to a third of the continent, occurred because power companies -- First Energy and Niagara-Mohawk to name two -- had slashed staffing and maintenance.

The under-manning and the under-spending all occurred beneath the banner of "deregulation." In the bad old days of bureaucrats with thick rule books, the government told the power companies exactly how much to spend on repairs. Under "deregulation," the rules went out the windows and repair cash was carted off as special dividends to stockholders.

I'm sitting here with Jerry Oppenheim and Theo MacGregor, two of this planet's most respected experts on electricity systems. They are just shaking their heads in disgust: nothing learned a year after the disaster. Rather, we have a blackout on reason, with "deregulation" -- the disease -- sold as the cure.

George Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is allowing the power companies to reach into our wallets and take out more cash to add wires to the transmission system -- in effect replacing the loot these guys carted off in the last ten years of deregulation. "But that won't keep the lights on," says Oppenheim, former Assistant Attorney General in New York in charge of investigating utilities. "It's not a lack of wires or lack of power plants that caused the blackout. The Administration is adding complexity to an overly complex system
all to avoid acting on the obvious conclusion: deregulation has failed."

As long as the lights are still on, I'm reprinting the commentary I wrote one year ago on my dying laptop ...

OUTAGE TRACED TO DIM BULB IN WHITE HOUSE

ZNet - August 14, 2003 -- I can tell you all about the ne're-do-wells that sent us back to the Dark Ages last week. I came up against these characters -- First Energy and the Niagara Mohawk Power Company -- some years back. You see, before I was a journalist, I worked for a living, as an investigator of corporate racketeers.

The power outage began in First Energy's Ohio operation. This company was the model for the film, "China Syndrome." Really. Then First Energy's Pennsylvania unit fumbled the power ball. These are the very same Homer Simpsons who melted Three Mile Island.

Next, Niagara-Mohawk blacked out and took down New York. Ni-Mo's claim to fame goes back to the 1980s. They built a nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point, a brutally costly piece of hot junk for which NiMo and its partner companies charged billions to New York State's electricity ratepayers.

To pull off this grand theft by kilowatt, the NiMo-led consortium fabricated cost and schedule reports, then performed a Harry Potter job on the account books. In 1988, I showed a jury a memo from an executive from one partner, Long Island Lighting, giving a lesson to a NiMo honcho on how to lie to government regulators. The jury ordered LILCO to pay $4.3billion and, ultimately, put them out of business.

I'm not surprised that the Three Stooges of the power industry knocked their heads together and blacked us out. What's surprising is that the US media is clueless about how we ended up with Larry, Moe and Curley in control of our nation's electronic lifeline.

Here's what happened. After LILCO was hammered by the law, after government regulators slammed Niagara Mohawk and dozens of other book-cooking, document-doctoring utility companies all over America with fines and penalties totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, the industry leaders got together to swear never to break the regulations again. Their plan was not to follow the rules, but to ELIMINATE the rules. They called it "deregulation."

It was like a committee of bank robbers figuring out how to make safecracking legal.

But they dare not launch the scheme in the USA. Rather, in 1990, one devious little bunch of operators out of Texas, Houston Natural Gas, operating under the alias "Enron," talked an over-the-edge free-market fanatic, Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, into licensing the first completely deregulated power plant in the hemisphere.

And so began an economic disease called "regulatory reform" that spread faster than SARS. Notably, Enron rewarded Thatcher's Energy Minister, one Lord Wakeham, with a bushel of dollar bills for 'consulting' services and a seat on Enron's board of directors. The English experiment proved the viability of Enron's new industrial formula: that the enthusiasm of politicians for deregulation was in direct proportion to the payola provided by power companies.

The power elite first moved on England because they knew Americans wouldn't swallow the deregulation snake oil easily. The USA had gotten used to cheap power available at the flick of a switch. This was the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt who, in 1933, caged the man he thought to be the last of the power pirates, Samuel Insull. Wall Street wheeler-dealer Insull created the Power Trust, and six decades before Ken Lay, faked account books and ripped off consumers. To frustrate Insull and his ilk, FR gave us the Federal Power Commission and the Public Utilities Holding Company Act which told electricity companies where to stand and salute. Detailed regulations limited charges to real expenditures plus a government-set profit. The laws banned power "trading" and required companies to keep the lights on under threat of arrest -- no blackout blackmail to hike rates.

Of particular significance as I write here in the dark, regulators told utilities exactly how much they had to spend to insure the system stayed in repair and the lights stayed on. Bureaucrats crawled along the wire and, like me, crawled through the account books, to make sure the power execs spent customers' money on parts and labor. If they didn't, we'd whack'm over the head with our thick rule books. Did we get in the way of these businessmen's entrepreneurial spirit? Damn right we did.

Most important, FDR banned political contributions from utility companies -- no 'soft' money, no 'hard' money, no money PERIOD.

But then came George the First. In 1992, just prior to is departure from the White House, President Bush Senior gave the power industry one long deep-through-the-teeth kiss good-bye: federal deregulation of electricity. It was a legacy he wanted to leave for his son, the gratitude of power companies which ponied up $16 million for the Republican campaign of 2000, seven times the sum they gave Democrats.

But Poppy Bush's gift of deregulating of wholesale prices set by the feds only got the power pirates halfway to the plunder of Joe Ratepayer. For the big payday they needed deregulation at the state level. There were only two states, California and Texas, big enough and Republican enough to put the electricity market con into operation.

California fell first. The power companies spent $39 million to defeat a 1998 referendum pushed by Ralph Nader which would have blocked the de-reg scam. Another $37 million was spent on lobbying and lubricating the campaign coffers of the state's politicians to write a lie into law: in the deregulation act's preamble, the Legislature promised that deregulation would reduce electricity bills by 20%. In fact, when in the first California city to go "lawless," San Diego, the 20% savings became a 300% jump in surcharges.

Enron circled California and licked its lips. As the number one contributor to the George W. Bush campaigns, it was confident about the future. With just a half dozen other companies it controlled at times 100% of the available power capacity needed to keep the Golden State lit. Their motto, "your money or your lights."

Enron and its comrades played the system like a broken ATM machine, yanking out the bills. For example, in the shamelessly fixed "auctions" for electricity held by the state, Enron bid, in one instance, to supply 500 megawatts of electricity over a 15 megawatt line. That's like pouring a gallon of gasoline into a thimble-- the lines would burn up if they attempted it. Faced with blackout because of Enron's destructive bid, the state was willing to pay anything to keep the lights on.

And the state did. According to Dr. Anjali Sheffrin, economist with the California State Independent System Operator which directs power deliveries, between May and November 2000, three power giants physically or "economically" withheld power from the state and concocted enough false bids to cost the California customers over $6.2 billion in excess charges.

It took until December 20, 2000, with the lights going out on the Golden Gate, for President Bill Clinton, once a deregulation booster, to find his lost Democratic soul and impose price caps in California and ban Enron from the market.

But the light-bulb buccaneers didn't have to wait long to put their hooks back into the treasure chest. Within seventy-two hours of moving into the White House, while he was still sweeping out the inaugural champagne bottles, George Bush the Second reversed Clinton's executive order and put the power pirates back in business in California. Enron, Reliant (aka Houston Industries), TXU (aka Texas Utilities) and the others who had economically snipped California's wires knew they could count on Dubya, who as governor of the Lone Star state cut them the richest deregulation deal in America.

Meanwhile, the deregulation bug made it to New York where Republican Governor George Pataki and his industry-picked utility commissioners ripped the lid off electric bills and relieved my old friends at Niagara Mohawk of the expensive obligation to properly fund the maintenance of the grid system.
And the Pataki-Bush Axis of Weasels permitted something that must have former New York governor Roosevelt spinning in his wheelchair in Heaven: They allowed a foreign company, the notoriously incompetent National Grid of England, to buy up NiMo, get rid of 800 workers and pocket most of their wages - producing a bonus for NiMo stockholders approaching $90 million.

Is last week's black-out a surprise? Heck, no, not to us in the field who've watched Bush's buddies flick the switches across the globe. In Brazil, Houston Industries seized ownership of Rio de Janeiro's electric company. The Texans (aided by their French partners) fired workers, raised prices, cut maintenance expenditures and, CLICK! the juice went out so often the locals now call it, "Rio Dark."

So too the free-market British buckaroos controlling Niagara Mohawk raised prices, slashed staff, cut maintenance and CLICK! -- New York joins Brazil in the Dark Ages.

Californians have found the solution to the deregulation disaster: re-call the only governor in the nation with the cojones to stand up to the electricity price fixers. And unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov. Gray Davis stood alone against the bad guys without using a body double. Davis called Reliant Corp of Houston a pack of "pirates" --and now he'll walk the plank for daring to stand up to the Texas marauders.

So where's the President? Just before he landed on the deck of the Abe Lincoln, the White House was so concerned about our brave troops facing the foe that they used the cover of war for a new push in Congress for yet more electricity deregulation. This has a certain logic: there's no sense defeating Iraq if a hostile regime remains in California.

Sitting in the dark, as my laptop battery runs low, I suspected the truth about deregulation will never see the light -- until we change the dim bulb in the White House.

-----
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (Penguin USA) and with Theo MacGregor and Jerrold Oppenheim, "Democracy and Regulation," a guide to electricity deregulation published by the United Nations/Pluto Press, winner of the ACLU's 2004 Freedom of Expression Award. www.DemocracyAndRegulation.com

See Palast's reports for BBC Television and the Guardian papers of Britain at www.GregPalast.com. Interviews/reprints: Media@gregpalast.com
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BUSH IGNORES HIS OWN LETTER FROM 1992 ON SMEAR ADS

With one of his top donors airing a dishonest and discredited attack ad against Sen. John Kerry's military record, President George W. Bush is refusing to denounce the tactics. Not only is Bush ignoring calls from his own top Republicans to intervene, he is directly contradicting his own demands during the 1992 presidential campaign.

Specifically, according to the July 14, 1992 Washington Post, George W.