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Do the neo-cons need Karl Rove when they can count on the Democrats?

Karl Rove scoots off the sunken White House ship with his plans for future neo-con dominance safe and secure---in the hands of Democrats unwilling or incapable of challenging his dirtiest deeds.

Elected to end a lunatic war, the Democratic Congress has prolonged it, earning approval ratings even lower than those of George W. Bush, whom Rove designated as a "war president" long before the attack on Iraq.

The Democrats have also signed off on the GOP's all-out assault on the Constitution, meekly certifying a "unitary executive" with totalitarian demands for a blanket suspension of civil liberties, arbitrary detention, official torture and more.

Once again voters will approach a presidential election asking themselves---why vote for Democrats who won't challenge the most catastrophic GOP outrages?

That question must now be asked again about the illegal destruction of 1.5 million ballots from Ohio's stolen 2004 election. The mass shredding includes a wide range of official documents critical to conducting a valid recount in the state that gave Bush/Rove a second term in the White House.

Exit Karl Rove, everybody's useful demon

The uproar over Karl Rove's resignation as George Bush's political advisor is stupendous, but in truth he was no great shakes as Svengali, and his exit is of scant consequence.

            Though they profess joy that the nation has been freed at last from his malign supervision, the Democrats have lost one of their most useful alibis. By inflating Rove into a blend of Walsingham and Svengali, a nonpareil political genius, they sought to explain how they failed to stop a mediocre Texas governor and incoherent campaigner from capturing the White House in 2000, and holding on to it in 2004.

            Al Gore fought a wretched campaign in 2000, and in the grand finale it was not Rove but five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who gave Bush the White House on Dec. 12, 2000, refusing to let Gore get a conclusive count of the missing ballots in Florida.

USDA cracking down on “organic” factory farms country's largest dairy likely to lose certification

CORNUCOPIA, WI: The Cornucopia Institute has learned that the USDA appears about to revoke the organic certification of the nation's largest industrial dairy operator, Aurora Organic Dairy, with corporate headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

Aurora operates several giant factory dairies milking thousands of cows each in semi-arid areas of Colorado and Texas. The company has been the subject of a series of formal legal complaints filed with the USDA by The Cornucopia Institute. The complaints from the Wisconsin-based farm policy group filed in 2005 and 2006, called for a USDA investigation into allegations of numerous organic livestock management improprieties on Aurora’s facilities.

“After personally inspecting some of Aurora’s dairies in Texas and Colorado, we found 98% of their cattle in feedlots instead of grazing on pasture as the law requires,” stated Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst. Cornucopia also found that Aurora was procuring cattle from a non-certified organic source in apparent violation of the law. “Our sources tell us that the USDA’s investigators found many other violations when conducting their probe of Aurora.”

Appalled at Ms. Lokeman's article

I am appalled at the article "Big love's big problem," by Rhonda Chriss Lokeman recently published at the Free Press. Mitt Romney very well may have a problem with the electorate because of his religion, but slandering him in such an uninformed and hateful way, because of his religion, is simply beyond acceptable.

I know that a long email isn't likely to be read, so please read the response to your article posted at http://www.romneyexperience.com/2007/08/14/ romney-too-religious-but-also-lacking-in-conviction/#more-63

I demand either an apology from The Free Press and the author, or a published explanation on why it is acceptable to slander and demean members of select religious minorities in this country, as you have done.

Respectfully, Daniel Ferguson
Austin, TX

Big Love???

I'm writing regarding Rhonda Lokeman's article, assumingly about Mitt Romney, titled "Big Love's Big Problem".  Although, I'm somewhat confused.  Governor Romney's name is mentioned a total of six times in the article, while the name of "Big Love" is mentioned eleven times.  Is Big Love a nickname for Romney? 

Will George Bush cancel the 2008 election

Dear Harvey:  You flight of imagination is only matched by those who said that the price of gasoline would be manipulated downwards to re-elect George Bush in the last election or that Osama Bin Laden would be “captured” just before the last election.  Good try, but you are just flapping your pen and lips.

Free speech

Dear All,

As a resident of Kent and citizen of Ohio I find this whole incident troubling.

A ticket for advertising on public property? How many tickets have been issued for people advertising yard/garage sales? signs posted for the monthly PWP Dance? signs for the Car Show? The Kent Harvest Festival? Art in the Park?

Just today I "witnessed" two grown males (yes, it took two of them- one to pound the stake and the other to attach the sign) place a sign at the corner of Stow and West Main Street that says "Car Show". Of course, they parked their vehicle at Logo's Bookstore so I was unable to get a license plate and contact the police to arrest these criminals. I feel bad for the city of Kent that these two men are at large, possibly posting more signs elsewhere.

I hope that I am not viewed as an accomplice to the crime since I merely witnessed it. In any event, I wanted to bring it to someones attention.

Tancredo's remarks promote anti-Americanism

Ahmad Al-Akhras is the Vice Chair of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  He resides in Columbus, Ohio and can be reached at ahmad@alakhras.org

It was shocking to hear presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) call for the bombing of Muslim holy sites as a deterrent to terrorist attacks on our nation and that is part of his “presidential anti-terror package.”  When reported overseas, such bigoted words can contribute to anti-Americanism, endangering American’s and providing Al-Qaeda and its ilk with a tool to recruit support and raise funds.

Last week Tancredo told an audience, "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina."  The Congressman, two years ago, engaged in similar rhetoric during a radio interview in Florida. 

DaFazio, Homeland Secuirty Committee leaders again refused access to continuity of government information

WASHINGTON, DC-Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) today issued the following statement in response to the White House's official denial of access to classified annexes to National Security Presidential Directive-20 (NSPD-20).  NSPD-20 lays out the government's plan for continuity of the Federal government in the aftermath of a catastrophic national emergency. 

"If the Administration has a plan for the continuity of government, they should share it with the Congress.  We are a co-equal branch of the government charged with oversight responsibilities for the execution of laws and expenditure of federal funds.  Lacking any other information, I can only assume that this denial means one of three things:

1) There is no plan.  There are other instances where the Administration failed to meet deadlines for developing emergency plans;

2)  They have a plan but it over-reaches and is either extra-constitutional or unconstitutional;

3)  This is another example of the obsessively secretive Administration that refuses to share information with a co-equal branch of the government. 

Thailand constitution

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's coup-installed military regime has told citizens to vote "yes" for a new constitution, written while half the country is muzzled under martial law, or accept a mysterious back-up constitution which is being kept secret from the public.

In a bizarre political game of constitutional hide-and-seek, the junta refused to reveal which of Thailand's 17 previous constitutions it might use, or what amendments might be added, if a majority "no" vote on Aug. 19 thwarts their draft.

"This is ridiculous. It is a matter of national interest and concern," said Somchai Preechasilpakul, dean of Chiang Mai University's law faculty.

The coup leaders "should not be hiding anything," Mr. Somchai said on Aug. 4.

Many Thai and foreign analysts predicted a victory for the regime's "yes" campaign, after the junta mailed copies of the new, thick constitution to millions of households in this Southeast Asian Buddhist nation.

"I received one, and I started to read it, but I didn't finish," one middle-aged businesswoman, who asked not to be identified, said in an interview.

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