Trumpets played “Taps” as members of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign and the public gathered around the coffin with 350 small American flags inside it, each flag representing 100 disenfranchised voters in the 2004 election. 

This November 2nd, in contrast to that cold and rainy day three years ago, was sunny and clear.  Downtown Columbus was silent save for the sound of the wind whipping the Ohio flag against the Statehouse flagpole, a sound which punctuated Tim Kettler’s opening eulogy:  

“We will visit the office of Ohio Secretary of State and Ohio Attorney General and ask why have they have permitted a system to exist that ignores election crimes, that allows private corporations to own and control our elections, and allows those most vulnerable and least heard, the poor and working poor, to be ignored once again.”

After the eulogies, the trumpets played, the pallbearers raised the casket, and the mourners followed the casket as it proceeded down E. Broad Street, past the Franklin County Board of Elections, the Secretary of State’s Office, and the Attorney General’s office. 

As a member of Congress, I have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and the laws of our nation, and I have pledged to represent the views of my constituents and of all Americans.

That’s why I feel both duty and sorrow in pursuing the path of impeachment against Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

While the impeachment movement has generated intensely strong sentiment and activism, there have been only two polls published on the question of impeaching Vice President Cheney. In a national poll, 54 percent of Americans favored impeachment. In one state poll, 64 percent of Vermonters favored impeaching the Vice President.

Twenty-one of my colleagues have heeded the public demand and signed on as cosponsors of my resolution, H Res 333. Others in the Congress have claimed they have more important priorities, but have told their constituents they will keep their views in mind if the matter ever comes up for a vote.

Well, the issue is coming up for a vote this week on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the “distraction” will require members to balance their priorities between Constitutionally proscribed

Cornucopia, WI—The Cornucopia Institute has sent a formal request to the Chief of the USDA’s Dairy Promotion and Research Program, requesting that the program collect almost three years’ worth of unpaid dairy promotion “check-off” assessments from the Colorado-based Aurora Dairy.

Since February 2005, the USDA has exempted organic dairy producers from paying the 15 cents per hundredweight assessment that it requires of all conventional dairy producers. Aurora initially claimed the organic exemption, but following a comprehensive investigation of improprieties, the USDA's national organic program found that its milk did not qualify as organic.

The exemption rule states that a producer must not only be certified organic, but must also “handle or market only products that are eligible for a 100 percent organic product label under the NOP as described in 7 CFR part 205.”

What color is your disaster?  It makes a difference.  A life and death difference.

Dig:

    Population of San Diego fire evacuation zone:  500,000
    Population of the New Orleans flood evacuation zone:  500,000

    White folk as a % of evacuees, San Diego: 66%
    Black folk as % of evacuees, New Orleans:  67%

Size counts, too.  Size of your wallet, that is:

    Evacuees in San Diego, in poverty:  9%
    Evacuees in New Orleans, in poverty:  27%

The numbers would be even uglier, though more revealing, if I included evacuees of the celebrity fire in Malibu.

The President didn’t do a photo-strafing of the scene from 1700 feet this time.  Instead, we have the photo op of George, feet on the ground, hanging with Arnold the Action Man.  (However, I’m informed that the President was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to wear one of those neat fireman hats like Rudi G got at Ground Zero.)