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History IS SCREAMING

Nobody opines sagely anymore that the races will never get along, calmly ladling conventional certainties over the earnest idealism of civil-rights activists. But we live in a world so permeated with militarized fear of demagogic leaders and rogue states that nuclear deterrence retains enough of the default credibility it had during the Cold War, as the opposite of utopian naïveté, that common sense is still on the defensive.

No matter that some of the most prominent old Cold Warriors have lost their faith in nuclear weapons, and grasp that us vs. them security concepts are disastrously counterproductive in today’s more complex, more nationally porous global reality, and have downgraded that era’s most notorious acronym — M.A.D., as in Mutually Assured Destruction — to just plain mad.

“U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage . . .”

Let those words reverberate, as we ponder their seriousness: “. . . to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons . . . and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world. . . . (which) is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era.”

Bangkok dangerous: bombs, sleaze and paralysis

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A series of deadly bombings, including Thursday's (November 20) attack which killed one person and injured 29 others, have shattered this Buddhist-dominated capital's polite, care-free ambiance, and worsened the paralysis within Thailand's besieged government.

Many Thais fear more bloodshed will result because of a three-month-long insurrection by thousands of anti-government protestors, who are illegally surrounding the prime minister's ornate office building.

Unable or unwilling to force the protestors from occupying the Government House complex, an embarrassed Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat installed chairs, desks, telephones and other levers of power in a V.I.P. lounge at Bangkok's former international airport, where his Cabinet meets each week.

After the police and military refused to oust the protestors from Government House, an unknown attacker fired a grenade on Thursday (November 20) over a wall, killing one protestor and injuring 29 others.

After the 3:30 a.m. explosion, police still did not enter the site, claiming the protestors would rebel and force a confrontation resulting in more casualties.

About the Ohio Presidential Election





Will Obama-mania lead us to Solartopia? YES WE WILL!

A Solartopian, Green-Powered Earth.

YES WE CAN!

A solution to global warming.

YES WE CAN!

The birth of a world economy built totally and entirely on renewable energy and increased efficiency.

YES WE CAN!

The permanent burial of King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas).

YES WE CAN!

A stake through the heart (if it had one) of a nuke power industry defined by 50 years of proven failure.

YES WE CAN!

The end of fossil fuels (and fools).

YES WE CAN!

Reviving and reinventing a mass transit system murdered 1920-1950 by King CONG's General Motors and Standard Oil.

YES WE CAN!

Rebirthing Detroit as a clean, lean, green machine with union labor making carbon free cars and the New Solartopian mass transit network we really need.

YES WE CAN!

Transforming the corporation from an entity with human rights but no human responsibilities to the other way around.

YES WE CAN!

The 2008 Presidential election: a preliminary analysis

In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s historic victory in the 2008 presidential election, two questions have frequently arisen. How did he manage to turn nine or ten “red states” into “blue states,” (as of this writing, Missouri is still too close to call), and why was the voter turnout “flat,” that is, not much greater than the voter turnout in the 2004 presidential election? As it happens, the two questions are somewhat related. This paper addresses them both.

Voter turnout is equal to total ballots cast divided by total registered voters, expressed as a percentage. Those who are wondering about the 2008 voter turnout are actually inquiring about total ballots cast, or more precisely, those with a choice for president -- the total popular vote.

The GOP attack on democracy continues in Ohio

The Ohio Republican Party has escalated its attacks on democracy on two key fronts.

It's trying to steal a hotly contested Congressional seat. And it's moving to restrict voting rights for coming elections.

In the bitterly embattled House race in central Ohio's 15th Congressional District, Republican State Senator Steve Stivers has a slight lead over Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy.

Two years ago, Kilroy essentially defeated the previous incumbent, fourth-ranked House Republican Deborah Pryce. In an extremely tight race, a wide range of dubious voter eliminations and manipulated vote counts stole what appears to have been a clear victory from Kilroy. The GOP's infamous J. Kenneth Blackwell was still Ohio's Secretary of State. The Democrats declined to take him on, and the seat remained in Republican hands.

This year Ohio's Secretary of State is Democrat Jennifer Brunner. It would appear Kilroy has won again.

Former Buckeye

Dear Free Press:

To add to your facts about Election Fraud in 2004, but also in 2000 the state of Florida in August 2008 discovered 54000 votes for Al Gore that had been hidden and never counted.

Bush lost, and Al Gore WON Florida, but; we idiot democrats allowed this TREASON by the GOP to take place with impunity.

How long will this last, and when will the masses of the USA have enough intelligence to know that this is Bush's Nazi Fascism that has been installed to eliminate Democracy.

Paul Welch

Re: GM must re-make the mass transit system it murdered

Sun nite 11/16/08. Few things are as delightful as finding one's ideas corroborated. Thanks for your piece on Common Dreams re GM/transit.

I'm old enough to remember well the deliberate and systematic destruction of L.A.'s not-bad transit system when I was a teenager. Earlier than that, I remember when nearly everyone took public transit--and no one felt low or put- upon.

My favorite examples are RED HARVEST by Dashiell Hammett, in whch the detective (circa 1922) is in a small city--obviously Butte, Montana-- and takes the STREETCAR. And the early post WW II movie STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, in which the characters DO take the train, because there WERE trains. (I STILL take the train whenever possible.)

I also remember the early TV series, when I was about 16, back in the stone age, 77 SUNSET STRIP; that was just about the first one devoted mainly to supposedly glamorous people spending a lot of time driving around in the first generation of new cars after the war--one of the main characters was a parking lot valet.

I'm much bemused: it seems to me 99.9% of ALL environmental stuff I hear on

GM, the economy and the environment

Thanks Harvey. And BTW: GREAT column.

We have been incensed about this. We watched "Who Killed the Electric Car" right after it came out, and just watched it again last night with my husband's 91 year old father who came to stay for one of his many sojourns from back east. Always a pro-union man, we wanted him to see it, and once again, we were outraged.

Bailing out GM in the name of "our country's best interest" is, in a word, bullshit. They have no compunction, WHATSOEVER, about sacrificing the country's best interest in terms of lining their pockets.

No bailout. UNLESS... they sign an airtight contract ASAP that they will create ASAP energy efficient public transportation that is zero impact on the environment. A hard standard to live up to but... JFK got us to the moon in less than a decade after his pronouncement. We think GM is capable of that.... and MORE. Especially if they can shred energy-efficient automobiles w/o a blink.

Thanks for your voice, your columns, your wisdom...

Keep up the great work,

Theresa, Howard,
And our kids.... Sarah, Izaak and Emm

Election protection in Ohio (and America) isn't over

As the sun sets on Bush 2, it is clear that a very thin line of electoral protection preserved Barack Obama's victory in Ohio---and the nation.

And it's no accident the vote count battle for a Columbus-area Congressional seat still rages.

The GOP's 2008 electoral strategy again emphasized massive voter disenfranchisement and rigging the electronic vote count. The twin tactics very nearly gave Ohio to McCain/Palin, and threatened to set precedents capable of winning them the national election.

Prior to the 2004 vote, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell stripped some 308,000 Ohio citizens from the registration rolls in heavily Democratic districts. This mass disenfranchisement alone may have accounted for the 118,000-plus official margin that gave George W. Bush a second term in the White House.

After the 2004 vote, Blackwell disenfranchised another 170,000 voters in heavily Democratic Franklin County (Columbus).

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