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Wasserman's essay

Friends:

Mr. Wasserman's essay is right on target, cutting through all the bullshit and side issues to reveal the essential truth of our situation. And what is to be done about it? Shall we be "Good Germans" and make-nicey to a tyrannous plot against everything we were taught America stands for? Shall we resist and obstruct?

One way we, at least the men among us, can silently declare that WE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON is to grow a Hitler moustache in protest. I am trimming my 'stash back to a Shickelgruber this week.

Peace n Love,
Mike Citizen

Ohio legislative black caucus endorses Ted Strickland for Governor

Columbus, Ohio - The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) announced today their endorsement of Congressman Ted Strickland to be Ohio's next governor.

"As a collective body of African-American legislators, we are convinced that Ted Strickland is the best candidate to help improve the quality of life of all people across Ohio regardless of their race, economic status or religious beliefs," said Representative Barbara Sykes (D-Akron), OLBC President.

Eighteen African-American Ohio state legislators make up OLBC.

"Civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. consistently talked about how shameful it is for one of the most prosperous countries in the world to have high poverty rates and an educational system that remains separate and unequal. He said that we have the resources to make the change, but many of our leaders simply don't have the will," said Rep. Sykes. "Under the leadership of our current administration the gap between the have's and have-not's has grown. Poverty rates are up, and our public school system that provides hope and inspiration to the majority of our children has not received adequate support."

Tragi-comedy

I'd like to thank Harvey Wasserman for his expressively written "The Latest Bush Mega-catastrophe is Now Pharmaceuticals" which had me trying to stifle screams of laughter at 3:20 in the morning.  The ability to exactly capture the multiple mega-catastrophes issuing from the Bush buffoons while framing it as an apocalyptic farce is a rare talent.  It's also helpful as a way to keep track  of a seemingly unending stream of scandals, tragedies, and crimes.

The war on dissent gets creepy

On New Year's Day, I decided to start 2006 out with a public protest against the war.  Little did I know how public it would become.

My younger brother and I (he was only the wheelman, led astray) tagged three highway overpasses near Toledo with "TROOPS OUT NOW!" (see photo, below).  Suburban cops with too much time on their hands and citizens with cell phones being what they were, we were soon pulled over by five (no kidding) patrol cars and arrested on no fewer than five felonies each.  For those of you who haven't been paying attention to how state legislatures protect us from crime, in the late 90's in Ohio it became a felony to spraypaint a public building (called "getting tough on gangs") AND a felony to possess a can of spraypaint in the commission of that crime ("possession of criminal tools" says the Ohio Revised Code).

We spent that night in jail and the next day appeared, shackled together, before a judge who set bond at (this is all for real, pals) $3,000 each, no 10% business. 

How Dick Cheney used the NSA for domestic spying pre-9/11

In the months before 9/11, thousands of American citizens were inadvertently swept up in wiretaps, had their emails monitored, and were being watched as they surfed the Internet by spies at the super-secret National Security Agency, former NSA and counterterrorism officials said.

The NSA, with full knowledge of the White House, crossed the line from routine surveillance of foreigners and suspected terrorists into illegal activity by continuing to monitor the international telephone calls and emails of Americans without a court order. The NSA unintentionally intercepts Americans' phone calls and emails if the agency's computers zero in on a specific keyword used in the communication. But once the NSA figures out that they are listening in on an American, the eavesdropping is supposed to immediately end, and the identity of the individual is supposed to be deleted. While the agency did follow protocol, there were instances when the NSA was instructed to keep tabs on certain individuals that became of interest to some officials in the White House.

Letter to the Editor...

Dear Editor,

Should President Bush be impeached?  That’s a very interesting and highly controversial question to be answered in the light of current situations going on today.  However, I feel that this question might have to address once again.  Since the very beginning of President Bush’s second term, the majority of American citizens have taken special interest in his ways of dealing with the Iraqi War, unethical procedures on International foreign diplomacy, his pro-Christian ideology on marriage, the mishandling of New Orleans’ natural disaster (Katrina), and now this current eavesdropping fiasco in dealing with National Security and Terrorism.  But, a verbal minority of Americans believe that the president has deliberately violated the US Constitution and is trying to re-establish a Neo-American Imperialism once formulated by a past president a hundred years ago…namely Theodore Roosevelt and should be hear by impeached.  Their convictions are warranted for formal debate…he has done some unconstitutional acts that could very well lead to his impeachment.

Open letter to members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee

Dear US Senate Judiciary Committee Members,

The Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) calls on you to complete your questioning of US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.  Judge Alito's position on the larger issue of this nation's democracy, trampled by the rights and powers of corporations to govern, was left untouched and unexplored following last week's Senate confirmation hearings.

The vast majority of non-criminal cases to be brought before the nine robed ones of the Supreme Court in the next few years will relate to matters of corporate "rights," protections, and dominance and their impact on the rights of human beings in this so-called democracy.  How strange, therefore, that among the many questions posed to nominee Alito, not a single one addressed the doctrines of corporate autonomy and authority that insulate these collections of capital and property from control by the people and their legislatures -- which used to exist at one time in this nation.

Have the judiciary's efforts been so successful over the last 200 years to find corporations within the US Constitution and bestow constitutional

Important documents

The following are links to two important documents:

The Mitofsky report:
http://www.exit-poll.net/election-night/EvaluationJan192005.pdf

And Steve Freeman's response to the Mitofsky report:
http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/Documents/ASAP09_05%20Freeman-Mitofsky.pdf

PA activists sue to vote on machines

Three cheers to activist Mary Beth Kuznik, and others, who recently filed suit against a Pennsylvania county (Westmorland) for violating Art. VII, Sec. 6 of the PA Constitution which "requires that the use of voting machines, or other mechanical devices for registering or recording and computing votes shall be used 'at the option of the electors of such county....'"

Since the BOE and Commissioners selected the voting system (ES&S iVotronic) without seeking the consent of the public, it appears the public has been damaged.

With California and North Carolina sending Diebold packing, this new lawsuit is another (hopefully successful) attack on these hackable voting systems, run by private for-profit corporations that refuse to reveal the source code, and that want us to simply trust their reported results. 

Citizen oversight is the price we pay for democracy, and Mary Beth Kuznik exemplifies citizen engagement.

Read the complaint

I will not support Hillary Clinton for president

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

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