Ohio - State Lawmakers Look to Prevent Future Recounts

The ironies of Repuglican understatements are endless(ly) nauseating:

State lawmakers look to prevent future recounts: "This is an exercise in futility and a ridiculous waste of county tax money,' said Larry Long, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio. 'Neither candidate has any chance of winning, so what's the point?"

Well, if their complaint were only about Badnarek and Cobb, yes. But Long's sleight-of-mouth avoids Kerry's legal request to protect ballot documentation and his clear and real interest in an accurate ballot count. Obviously the Repugs are scared and shoring up their fraud machine requires thought-shifting the population from the understanding of Repug's intentionally fraudulent actions of voter-repression onto a seemingly frivolous concept - you know, like those frivolous malpractice or frivolous corporate liability lawsuits. Uh-huh.

How about holding election officials legally liabel for vote-related problems instead? How about training the volunteers who are handling the most precious right Americans have - to hire and fire their government representatives? How about over-hauling election laws and rules so partisan hands are kept out of voting altogether? How about just getting voter's eyes on the correct ball in the game - the sanctity of votes - and off the refs rule-shifting and blame-placing?

Hey - OHIO - YOU ARE THE VICTIMS - GET A SPINE!!!

Are we There Yet?

The Ohio recount effort is like a slow-motion auto accident. I can't tell whether I am in the car speeding off a cliff ala Thelma and Louise or just dreaming I am. Regardless, I can't take my eyes off the disaster we call Election 2004, and things are still speeding up. Any day now it threatens to be a white-hot issue, especially if attorney Cliff Arnebeck gets his way and fulfills one of my wildest dreams; deposing Karl Rove and George W. Bush.

On Dec. 21, officials named in Arnebeck's challenge learned that he planned to issue subpoenas to several high-ranking officials, including Blackwell, Bush and the president's political adviser, Karl Rove, according to Petro.

The state Supreme Court ``should halt their ability to subpoena any person until such time as they make a good faith showing for the reason to take any deposition,'' Petro said.

The last time a similar challenge was made to a statewide race came in 1990 when Paul Pfeifer contested Lee Fisher's 1,234-vote victory in the attorney general's race. Six justices of the court sided with Fisher.

Now, the Kerry campaign joining the effort lends Arnebeck's challenge the weight it needs. At truthout you can read the Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence:

The filing by the Kerry/Edwards campaign is significant. The Yost matter deals with a recount of the votes cast in Ohio during the election. In order for a judge to consider such a motion, the plaintiff must be able to prove irreparable harm in the matter at hand, and must also be able to prove a significant chance that the case will succeed on the merits. The stumbling point for the Green Party and Libertarian Party in this matter has been the ability to prove that potential for success, because no recount would deliver an Ohio victory to them. A recount could very well deliver Ohio to Kerry, thus fulfilling the success on the merits requirement.

Finally, for those who want to take the recount fight to their own streets and need facts and data to do so, Ohio Election Fraud has a post with 84 Ohio election fraud links at Evidence of Fraud and Disenfranchisement in Ohio: A Partial List:

"This post is intended as a resource tool for those doing factual research on Ohio election 2004 (a) fraud, (b) disenfranchisment, (c) voter suppression, (d) recount obstruction, and (e) vote machine tampering. It makes no pretense at comprehensiveness, but is merely an attempt to compile links which have been posted on this site which are primary sources of evidence, or which summarize, analyze, or point to, such sources. They are listed in reverse chronological order of posting."

So...now are we there?

ELECTION FRAUD UPDATE - The Night Before Christmas

NOTE: This is an updating post. The title and contents are periodically reviewed and edited for relevancy and breaking news.

For those of you who like doing your own research, my advice for a routine that should keep you on top of the Ohio election recount effort is a frequent scan of the Ohio Election Fraud and CANNONFIRE blogs (links under the Blogs section). Scan The Free Press articles (link in the Media section) and finally Buzzflash (under Media or the updating headlines box) for relevant news links.

For those of you who can't put in daily perusal time, check back here once a week. I will summarize what I think are the current highlights in my ELECTION FRAUD UPDATE post.

As of today, the Ohio recount effort is forging ahead and by no small measure thanks to super-dedicated patriots who are fighting to hold America's second battlefront - Election 2004. The resistance Repugs are mounting only strengthens my belief the election was fraudulent. I think it only a matter of time before the accumulating evidence explodes in their laps.

Bob Fertig's blog at Democrats.com has a great timeline (back to 10/31) with links for every important Ohio count and recount development, and at the end provides link lists to activists, in-depth research, bloggers and blog investigations. I printed the blog post and at 10-point, single spacing, it was still 6 pages long! Nice to print and take along for waving in the face of nay-sayers...

The question many folks ask me is what, at this point in the election, could happen to keep Bush out of office? What is all this recounting going to amount to (beyond the principle of the thing, that is)? A challenge is what.

This blog post from Bob Arnebak at The Free Press brings us up to date on that idea:

"In a December 21 conference call with activists from the around the US, (Jesse) Jackson said he has urged Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to stand with US Representatives who intend to challenge the Electoral College's expected approval of George W. Bush for a second term. A challenge by US Representatives in 2000 failed because no Senators would join their motion, "

and that is what we need, one Senator willing to put their career on the line. If a Senator and a House member jointly submit an objection, each House would retire to its chamber to consider the objection. That could, given the apparent wide-spread voter suppression and possible vote-tampering, require a revote, though I have yet been able to find wording for that procedure in any of the government documents I have been reading...

Probably like many of you, since the December 13th Conyer Ohio hearings, I've been wondering when some aspect of the story will break into the broadcast and print media. Along those lines I found this reprint of an email from an activist on Daily Kos :: Plea for help from an Ohio activist that goes to the issue:

"If you want to do something, here's what you can do to help. I am asking the rest of the country to please get out there and find well-known people who's voices are loud enought to be heard by the press who will stand up for us. Get a Senator or a media personality or anyone of very high profile to come out about this. The media blackout is killing us. Very few members of Congress, and no one in the Democratic Party has even seriously acknowledged the recount.

This is still looked at as the 'sour grapes' effort of a couple of disgruntled 3rd party candidates who can't win anyway. It couldn't be further from that. The civil rights of every man, woman and child in America are at stake here. I don't care what it takes, convince somebody to break our story, to back us and give us the credibility we need and to let the world know we're here doing this. Redford, Sting, Kennedy, Fonda, Kerry... I don't care who, somebody, anybody who can attract the attention of the media (evidently John Conyers' and Jesse Jackson's brave voices are not loud enough.) "

At the end of his latest blog Fertig cites the so-far "official stories" about the Ohio recount. There are two of them, total.

Sigh...keep your tin hats handy folks because as I've said here before, America has finally invaded...the Twilight Zone.

Think Green, Buy Blue

It being the Holiday Season I know most of you will buy stuff whether I think it's a good idea or not (I heard that) so at least use your pesos to unsupport Repug backers while you're at it.

Heck, voting for ideas with your dollars has been a great LIBERAL idea since the 60's (not a recent invention of the Christian Right-wing-nut's letter campaigns). The early Whole Earth Catalog provided the link from real out-of-the-box thinking to out-of-the-box tools. Creative thinking led to enough creative entrepreneurs and market for 80's movers and shakers like Co-op America to take root. Sadly, that fantastic, expansive thinking of pioneering cultural 60's liberals is today reduced by Repug freedom-haters to intentionally distorted frames of that decade's worst usurpers - corporate pop culture, stupid genre flicks and potheads. Well, I digress....

This Holiday Season (bite me O'Reilley) your mission is to support the Buy Blue Current Campaign:

"Our goal here is to provide you information on who gave what to what political party this last election cycle. There are many factors which will eventually pertain to the 'Blue-approved' label, however with buying season upon us, we quickly wanted to give people SOMETHING to go off of. Political donations and their effects are but one of many factors we will look at when a company is taken into consideration. We understand that there are Blue-contributors which have less than savory business practices, and we will be focusing on 'the big picture' in the coming weeks."

Hey, maybe we could send Bill a boxcar of coal...
Ho-Ho-Ho!

A Yellow Ribbon for the Rest of U.S.!!!

I'm not a proponent of consumerism, but I do know that marketing is a political tool and if the other guy has more tools (toys) at the end of the day, he wins. Our team has the edge on cool tee-shirts and bumper stickers hands down - and now we are getting the newest of political marketing toys (er, tools) - ribbon magnets! I want an orange one for you know what. Until then, spend a few bucks at United for Peace and Justice and get an equally good thing:

All over the country, everywhere you go, people are displaying "Support the Troops" magnets on their automobiles. At United for Peace and Justice, we believe the best way to support the troops is to bring an end to the unjust, unnecessary, and disastrous war in Iraq. So we've created our own version of the yellow ribbon car magnet, with a highly visible peace sign and the slogan, "Bring the Troops Home Now!"

And...at Watching the Watchers (click the ribbon under the newly added Products section) you can order a ribbon in yellow or black with a slogan of theirs or one in your own words...how cool is that?

2004 Election Forum Action List

Okay. Following up on my last post regarding Conyer's hearings and the action list I promised, here we go...

Monday December 13 is a Very Important Day in Ohio. The events are congressman John Conyer's 2004 Election Forum and attorney Cliff Arnebeck's filing of a suit to overturn the Ohio election results. Between the time you read this post and then, you need to get involved in any activity in your area that is organized to protest or otherwise bring attention to the Ohio recount effort.

First, this link at Ohio Election Fraud blog lists the 2004 Election Forum event details:

• House Judiciary Committee Moves to Columbus for Second Forum: Monday, December 13th, Columbus City Hall, 10:30 AM: Rep. John Conyers, Jr, and other Representatives along with Rev. Jesse Jackson will be holding a congressional forum in Columbus concerning new evidence of election irregularities and fraud in Ohio, the issue of Ohio electors meeting while recounts and litigation are pending, and to discuss legislative and other responses to the problems.

Second, these two links to Bob Fertik's blog at Democrats.com (links from December 10 and 11 respectively) explain first, the nature of Arnebeck's lawsuit and then a list of the 5 actions you can take now to make the events in Ohio more effective. I strongly suggest you follow point two's link to Fertik's blog. That post has at least 4 more links I DID NOT include in it below.

• Stolen Election 2004: Saturday Update | Democrats.com Blog: "The Arnebeck suit to overturn the official Ohio Election results will be filed Monday in Ohio. It has been delayed to add additional documentation showing that Kerry was the likely winner in Ohio if all eligible votes were counted in a fair manner. The documentation includes strong documentation that systematic voter suppression occurred in Ohio, with widespread malfeasance for election officials and staff. The documentation also includes evidence of mistakes or irregularities in many precincts and strong evidence of irregularities or fraud in many precincts. Follow up in individual precincts by volunteers appears to have already confirmed some of the fraud indicated. Much of the evidence comes from the documentation compiled through voter meetings in Ohio."

• Bob Fertik's blog | Democrats.com Blog

Immediate Actions:

1. Call/fax/email Ken Blackwell and demand specific answers to the 34 specific questions from Congressional Democrats. Also demand he recuse himself from the recount because he co-chaired the Bush campaign: (877) 767-6446 (toll-free) (614) 466-2655 (local) (614) 644-0649 (fax) blackwell@sos.state.oh.us.

2. Call/email House Judiciary Committee chair James Sensenbrenner and demand official public hearings on election fraud in Ohio: 202-225-2492 Judiciary@mail.house.gov

3. There is an amazing amount of election fraud organizing all across the country! Attend a No Stolen Election protest (also here) in your community. Help organize a You Stole My Vote rally in your State Capital on Dec. 12. Swap transportation or housing for the Ohio recount.

4. Tell the media to break their silence about (or GOP-prompted dismissal of) Ohio's election fraud. Search for a specific news organization, chose 3 states (DC, OH, NY) or write 'em all.

5. Urge House Democrats to challenge Ohio's electors. Urge Democratic Senators to join them.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Conyer's Ohio Vote Forum Redux

Keith Olbermann pretty much hits the nail on the head with his analysis of Michigan's John Conyer Jr's "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio" forum's probable outcome (which sadly - was a forum, not as we'd hoped - an actual hearing) yesterday. He expands on one of the two most important points I heard, that being:

Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois, turned to the chair of the ad hoc committee, John Conyers, of Michigan, and said “if the votes are not tallied in the state of Ohio by the appropriate time, is there any thought being given that the committee might consider an objection to the proceeding of the Ohio Electors until such time (as they are tallied)?”

Conyers replied, extending each word to about eleven syllables: “We are now.”

An after-forum point made in an interview (I missed) is:

These were deep waters, and in an interview with Countdown’s Monica Novotny right after the forum closed, Conyers backed quite a bit away from the river’s edge. He said “We will wait for someone else,” in preference to drawing congress into a legal battle.

which leaves me less than hopeful Conyer's forum will result in any action before the elector slates meet, except as an act of protest, as Olbermann points out:

"If, in Ohio, or in the calculations of the academics, or in subsequent developments, they conclude there is reasonable evidence that the vote there was rotten - merely accidentally so - one of them in the House and one of them in the Senate should stand up and produce that written challenge to the Ohio electors’ credibility."

hmmm...

The next most important exchange for me and which Olbermann's summary skips, was an interchange between North Carolina's Mel Watt and Conyer (spurred by an ad hoc question from an audience member that echoed for about the hundredth time the plea 'What are you going to do about Ohio election results NOW and how are you going to guarantee our votes and the voting process is protected in the future') that ended with Watts stating to the audience in general: "It's hard to legislate unless you make an official record. It would help us if we found an increasing amount of pressure applied on the formal process of hearing a formal hearing of the events in Ohio."

If that wasn't a specific appeal to those who want results from congress to put their actions where their mouths are, what is? A gathering of opportunities for you to act on this appeal will be the subject of a post tomorrow...

But to wrap up, there were a number of interesting points from panel witnesses:

• In Conyer's introductory statement he thanked the media for "making sure we heard about this" (say what)? Fortuntaely in Ralph Neas (People for the American Way) statement he got it correct with his observation that the media and administration had whitewashed things with an 'over-all ease' of the election nationwide (a point I make in my November 12 blog post). In the end he applauded Conyer for the forthcoming GAO report on election irregularities. Great quotable words from Neas were: "We should be the model of democracy, not hypocrisy".

• Cliff Arneback, attorney from Common Cause Ohio made a fine point that there were two categories of fraud (yea, he used the "f" word) in Ohio. The open one, and the hidden fraud seen in statistical anomolies accomplished through computer manipulation and of which there was "considerable evidence". To this Conyers responded that hacking was a "serious consideration".

• Robert Fitrakis, Free Press Editor who'd covered El Salvadoran election fraud, ended his statement with a moving explanation of how his commitment to outing voter supression in Ohio was ignited when a chemotherapy patient fainted in line after 2&1/2 hours of waiting and was still denied a provisional ballot even after he demanded one on her behalf as prescribed by law.

• Susan Truitt, Ohio cofunder of Citizen Alliance for Secure Elections added several accounts of the hardships voters endured to exercise their rights including that of a hospitalized man who, after being denied an absentee ballot in the hospital, stood on line with an IV in his arm. Others included a job lost for absence and cars towed for their owner's too-lengthy stays in line.

• John Bonifaz, National Voting Institute's general counsel's testimony was fascinating as he ticked off a list of dates and incidences illustrating the convolutions Kenneth Blackwell and the Ohio County Board of Elections were illing to go through as stalling tactics and outright illegal efforts to thwart Green-party presidential candidate's Cobb and Libertarian candidate's Badnarek's legal suit for a vote recount in the state. My favorite quote from Bonifaz referenced a saying from Ghandi: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. They are fighting us now and we are going to win."

Hell yea...

C-Span - Forum on the Ohio Vote in the 2004 Election

I have only enough time to point out what I felt were the significant outcomes of this meeting (I'll fill in more tonight) but here they are:

• Rev. Jessie Jackson (Panel One witness - Rainbow PUSH Coalition Founder and President) called for the congressional committee to go to Ohio to hold hearings on voter charges. John Conyers (Committee meeting chair, Rep. D-MI, Congressional Black Caucus) said they would.

• Cliff Arnebeck (Panel One witness - Common Cause Ohio, attorney) stated one of the two issues of concern was voting machine tampering and Conyers agreed hacking "...was a serious consideration."

• Mel Watt (Committee member, Rep. D-NC, Congressional Black Caucus) stated that it is hard to legislate (changes in voting laws) unless you make an official record and that "It would help us if we found an increasing amount of pressure applied on the formal process of hearing a formal hearing of the events in Ohio." In other words, they can get somewhere if citizens put pressure on the representatives to follow up.
  

• Bobby Scott (Committee member, Rep. D-VA , Congressional Black Caucus) stated that currently there are no checks and balances in Washington DC and that the Republicans have to be involved (which by their complete absence from this meeting indicated they are not). He further stated that "There can be no criminal investigations without the executive branch. All we can do is expose the problems."

For the wonks among you, it will be rebroadcast (the C-Span schedule is online) and the full text will be available on the House Judiciary Democratic website....

...details later.

ELECTION FRAUD UPDATE: OMF'nG!!!!

I no sooner write that I'll post something "nuts" if it comes up, then dammit, something Incredibly Nuts comes up - can we jail anyone yet? Go to The Brad Blog and read this NOW (I've excerpted it at length)!!!

In stunning revelations set to rock the vote from Tallahassee to Capitol Hill -- and perhaps even a bit further up Pennsylvania Avenue -- a Florida computer programmer has now made remarkable claims in a detailed sworn affidavit, signed this morning and obtained exclusively by The BRAD BLOG!

The programmer claims that he designed and built a "vote rigging" software program at the behest of then Florida Congressman, now U.S. Congressman, Republican Tom Feeney of Florida's 24th Congressional District.

And what did Republican Congressman Tom Feeney want?

"He detailed, in his own words, that; (a) the program needed to be touch-screen capable (b) the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment (c) the programming to accomplish this needed to stay hidden even if the source code was inspected."

And why did Curtis comply?

Curtis, "a life-long Republican" at the time, claims that it was his initial belief that Feeney's interest was in trying to stop Democrats from using "such a program to steal an election". Curtis had assumed that Feeney, "wanted to be able to detect and prevent that if it occurred."

But was that Feeney's real intention?

In other meetings with Feeny prior to the 2000 elections, it became clear to Curtis that Feeney had plans to suppress the vote in strong Democratic precincts. In the affidavit, Curtis claims that in those meetings Feeney had "bragged that he had already implemented 'exclusion lists' to reduce the 'black vote'." Feeney also mentioned that "proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25%."

Is this dangerous for Curtis?

In July of this year, in an email we've reviewed which purports to be from a current YEI employee whose name we are withholding, Curtis was sent the following message in regard to a book that the employee had learned Curtis was working on: "They know about the book. You should not have sent it to a bush supporter. They are going crazy...like they weren't after you already. So I get to warn you AGAIN. They will do everything thwey [sic] can to keep it from getting published. They are also going to try to take you out again. Don't be alone. They specifically want to limit casualities to just you. As long as they can't catch you alone they won't touch you. You are such a loser........"

What's being done about all this?

Curtis' affidavit is being turned over this afternoon to staffers at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. An investigation into Curtis' story is pending.

Anything else?

While we've been working on this story for several days in order to get it right, we had hoped to hold it a bit longer to confirm a few more of the details. As well, we had hoped to allow the Judiciary Committee and others time to comment before making this story widely available. However, as of late Sunday night, Curtis' story has been reported elsewhere on the Internet by Wayne Madsen. His detailed account references an older, very short affidavit that Curtis had made in regards to the information contained in a self-published book on some of these matters. While Madsen's article was independently researched and reported -- and offers some very good detail in relation to Curtis, YEI, FDOT and Feeney, much of which that we can confirm -- he then ties those stories to a much grander CIA/Bush family conspiracy.

Now, on Wayne Madsen. If you've been reading my updating post ELECTION FRAUD UPDATE the past weeks, you've read about Madsen's work as reported by CANNONFIRE. Madsen's
set of reports (the second one is here) can be read at Online Journal, which I have now added to the media links list.

Oh, this could be The Big One!!!

Abuse Begins at Home

Ah, I've been looking for something about the Democratic party pandering to Republican abuses as victim behavior, and here it is (in part) from Mathew Gross's site, written by a domestic violence professional: The Politics of Victimization.

They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.

Listen to George Bush say that the will of God excuses his behavior. Listen, as he refuses to take responsibility, or express remorse, or even once, admit a mistake. Watch him strut, and tell us that he will only work with those who agree with him, and that each of us is only allowed one question (soon, it will be none at all; abusers hit hard when questioned; the press corps can tell you that). See him surround himself with only those who pledge oaths of allegiance. Hear him tell us that if we will only listen and do as he says and agree with his every utterance, all will go well for us (it won’t; we will never be worthy).

Have you ever been involved with an alcoholic or other addict? I have, several, and most were abusive in some way, at some time. George Bush (who has replaced alcohol with Jesus and is therefore still an addict) acts as those I knew.

...watch the Democratic Party leadership walk on eggshells, try to meet him, please him, wash the windows better, get out that spot, distance themselves from gays and civil rights. See them cry for the attention and affection and approval of the President and his followers. Watch us squirm. Watch us descend into a world of crazy-making, where logic does not work and the other side tells us we are nuts when we rely on facts. A world where, worst of all, we begin to believe we are crazy.

Just like any victim of abuse. Think of the torture tactics in Iraq and GTMO. Designed to break down defenses through mental and verbal abuse, making the victim dependent on the abuser. The same type of corporate Republican minds are using those tactics on Americans. They've hired Rush Limbaugh and his ilk to do their dirty work. The pundicrats are intentionally abusive - addicts - who transfer abuse of substances to abuse of people. Whatever it takes to get numb and feel important. And how many people in our society are codepedent enough to feed on this? Millions. And how many liberals are liberals because they came from abusive authoritarian conservative or Republican households? Millions. And how many liberals are acting out with these abusive, authoritarian figures and trying to please them now as they did their parents? Millions. How do we break the cycle?

First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away.

And then what? DON"T MOVE TO THE RIGHT! Don't answer their catcalls - don't go on their radio or TV shows, don't buy their corporate products, don't laugh at their stupidity - don't acknowledge them, but stay on top of the issues and discuss them through your principled liberal views. Build your world tight and secure for you and your family and be active in the world of your values, not theirs, not ever.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you...Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don’t even know they are being hit.

Throw the Bastards Out, 2006.

Sorry Everybody

Sorry Everybody is THE place to go if you want to experience through images, the profound emotions of people reaching for a hug of remorse and comfort over another term of the most provincial and fascistic American president in history. The variety and number of soulful expressions is cathartic, energizing and uplifting.

Bookmark the site...you'll need it.

INCOMING: Chemical Lobotomy Law

Your kids (and then you) will be submitted to mandatory psych testing. And if found outside the norm you will be drugged. And you will accept it or violate the law. Either way, you will be controlled. Yea, no kidding.

Some other thoughts from an article in October at WashingtonTimes.com:

Unlike medical diagnoses that are ultimately based on objective biological evidence, psychiatric diagnoses are based on what people say and do. Such diagnoses are moral and political, not medical judgments. Brain science is still in its infancy: Why is one kind of behavior interpreted as a sign of mental or brain disease but not another kind? Besides, behavior has reasons, not causes. That principle is at the very core of what we mean by personhood. (Brain-scan technology cannot refute this principle because it does not identify causes of behavior. Correlation is not causation.)

The New Freedom Commission recommendation that everyone be screened for mental illness whenever he goes to the doctor and that children be monitored for mental illness in government schools is a plan to stigmatize people for "inappropriate" behavior and speech. It is also a plan for the widespread drugging of adults and children under government supervision. There is also reason to fear the improper influence of drug companies.

Allen Jones, formerly of the Pennsylvania Inspector General's Office, revealed a similar program was started in his state after drug companies curried favor with state officials. The British Medical Journal reported: "In July 2002, Mr. Jones . . . uncovered evidence of payments into an off-the-books account. The account, earmarked for 'educational grants' was funded in large part by Pfizer and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Payments were made from the account to state employees who developed formulary guidelines recommending expensive new drugs over older, cheaper drugs with proved track records. One of the recommended drugs was Janssen's Risperdal — a drug that has recently been found to have potentially lethal side effects."

And I would blow this off as laughable in America except that Bush, who has never been psychiatrically evaluated or drugged - except by alcohol, cocaine, God and Power - is insane enough to, well, do it.

This is serious enough that I feel nauseated.

Get your passport renewed. Now.
And then fight this like it's the only thing that matters because if this happens...oh, and you know how they love those ironic titles: Clean Skies, Healthy Forests and now, New Freedom.

History Repeats Itself

I like Arianna Huffington don't you?

She's making the correct argument for why Democrats need to stop buying pundicrap doom and gloom pronouncements about our political future by making this (obvious) comparison to Republicans:

Take this Bill Bennett quote from November 1992 placing the blame for the Republican drubbing on "the lack of a clear, coherent, compelling core message." Doesn't it sound like any number of Democrats complaining about 2004?

Or how about this 1992 analysis from John Ashcroft, then governor of Missouri, writing in the Washington Post: "The Republican Party needs to shake itself loose from top-down management, undergo a grassroots renewal and adopt a vigorous, positive agenda that flows from the priorities, views and values of citizens who involve themselves in that process. ... Our party needs to frame its priorities more in terms of what we're for rather than what we are against."

And she's restating the obvious on HOW (will someone please understand that why is not a problem-solving question?) to get the job done:

They also need to take a number of practical steps: For starters, they need to make sure that there is never another election held with electronic voting machines that don't leave a paper trail, or voter suppression caused by long lines and not enough polling places in poor neighborhoods. Next, they should – to paraphrase Shakespeare – kill all the consultants (and, while they're at it, do away with the bullheaded pollsters, too). The Party needs to find and develop campaign teams that can run winning races in the 21st century, not keep rehiring the same professional losers election after election. Shouldn't there be an "eight strikes and you're out" rule?

Just read it: AlterNet: Election 2004: History Repeats Itself

On the Fly...

I have over a dozen new posts in the pipeline. Subjects range from neuro-cognitive effects on election choices to abortion. But every day some new Bush policy attacks the strength of Americans on one of those fronts and I have to go explore that area...so few of the posts are published.

To make sure I get across the general areas I think most vital for every activist to be aware of, if not acting upon, I have created this list (in order of importance) and all require daily action starting yesterday:

1. Environment - Oceanic (global), polar, local
   
2. Media bias - Local, national
   
3. Election fraud - Local, national (never stop on that one)
   
4. Human rights - Abortion rights national, local and all others local

Now those issues may seem too large, too general and too obvious, but if approached in the above order one can use the categories to make decisions on where to invest effort any time at any place. For example, are you standing in line at the bank and feel compelled to impose yourself into a spirited discussion on religion with the couple in front of you? Well, do you have the time for that? Or could you spend that twenty minutes composing a document you could distribute with facts on the environment (and how to get action on those areas) for your next meeting, event or coffee house visit? After all, that would cover the environment (global and local) and media bias (local) all at once!

Gotta bounce...