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First the lying, then the pardon

When he announced the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald included a homily on the importance of truth. And, in truth, it sounded a bit quaint, like someone trying to recite the Sermon on the Mount on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But, of course, Fitzgerald was right. When lying becomes the accepted currency, you haven't got the rule of law but a criminal conspiracy.

All governments lie, but Ronald Reagan and his crew truly raised the bar. From about 1978 on, when the drive to put Reagan in the White House gathered speed, lying was the standard mode for Reagan, his handlers and a press quite happy to retail all the bilge, from the Soviet Union's supposed military superiority to the millionaire welfare queens on the south side of Chicago.

Cornucopia Institute requests full USDA investigation of suspect dairy improprieties alleged at organic factory farm in Colorado

CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: The Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA requesting a full investigation into allegations of multiple violations of federal organic regulations at the nation’s largest organic dairy. The Aurora Organic Dairy, located in Colorado and with a herd approaching 6000 cows, appears to have violated numerous organic regulations governing the rearing of animals entering its vast factory farm operation.

“We have filed this complaint following our visit to the site of a nearby ranch that has been supplying – on a contract basis – hundreds of replacement cows to the Aurora Dairy,” said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based Institute.

“From our investigation, review of records and extensive interviews with the ranch owner, it appears that the operation has never had its livestock practices certified as organic,” Kastel said.

Which Bush crony will be the next Brownie?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Today's fun challenge is "Spot the Next Brownie." In this fab game for the whole family, review a list of Bush administration cronies in office and see if you can pick the next Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown, another disaster waiting for a hurricane to happen.

Scope out the Bird Flu Czar from Amtrak. Stewart Simonson is now in charge of "the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies," according to his government biography. He is also in charge of ensuring the country has adequate vaccines and antiviral meds to combat an avian flu epidemic. This would be peachy-keen if Simonson had any experience in public health, bioterrorism, epidemics or even management. Unfortunately, he's a political lawyer. As he recently told a congressional subcommittee, "We're learning as we go."

Torture

Parental guidance suggested

A rare moment of truth – several of them, actually – occurred at last week’s meeting of the Toledo Board of Education’s Policy Committee when school officials, peace activists and military recruiters assembled to discuss a draft policy to control recruiters in public schools. 

Thanks to the federal No Child Left Unrecruited Act, kicking the snake oil salesmen out altogether was not on the table (frankly, I think the vast majority of school board officials around the country are glad “No Child Left Alone” gives them the political cover to tell peace activists “gee, we’d love to ban recruiters altogether, but the federal law, blah blah blah…”).    

So before the discussion fixated on how many pounds of Pentagon refuse per square foot of cafeteria space would be permitted on alternate Tuesdays, I asked to speak.  Board President, Larry Sykes, who prefers to go by his first name, nodded in my direction. 

Chalabi pushes Iran card in last ditch self-promotion offensive

Washington D.C. – Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi has been playing hard ball with Bush administration officials during his eight day trip to Washington D.C.

According to senior associates of the Iraqi official, who have accompanied him to meetings with Bush administration officials, Mr. Chalabi has been threatening his friends in the Bush administration that if they do not support his candidacy to become the next prime minister of Iraq that there will be no way to contain Iran. He has told them in no uncertain terms that he is the only one who can make the Iranians behave.

Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?

Dear Freepress:

Break out those jack-boots and polish to a highly reflective shine. Break out that old brown shirt and wash, starch, and iron razor sharp creases. Black pants are not optional. Hair will be short and neatly trimmed. Faces will shine cleanly like the morning sun. Black leather belts and buttons will be polished. Goose-step practice will commence sharply at 8:00 a.m..

America is shackled no, chained to the Bush administration and exactly how are 'we the people' to undo this growing cancer? Congress protects the war criminals, the media protects the war criminals, and 'we the people' are simply ass-out!

The great American experiment in democracy is sadly over. Resistance is futile. We are so fucking doomed.

peace,
Citizen X
Murray, Utah

Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban

With nary a peep from the mainstream media, the US Supreme Court has stabbed yet another partisan knife into the American electoral system.

This time the court has let stand Florida's infamous 137-year-old ban on voting rights for ex-felons. It was this same Jim Crow ban that the GOP used to disenfranchise thousands of Floridians in 2000, providing the margin by which George W. Bush took the presidency. The ruling continues to take the vote from millions of African-Americans and non-violent offenders----and, in practice, others who have broken no laws at all. It is highly likely to strengthen the lock of the Republican party and its future candidates on the US presidency.

In Florida 2000, Republican Governor Jeb Bush used the ban as a pretext for disenfranchising tens of thousands of mostly black voters who committed no crime at all, but whose names allegedly resembled those who did. In the lead-up to his brother's test at the polls, Bush hired a Republican computer firm to compile a dubious list which Bush then used to deprive perhaps 120,000 Floridians, perhaps more, of their right to vote.

Bonifaz: A candidate for the rest of us

John Bonifaz is seriously considering running for election next year as Massachusetts Secretary of State, or more properly, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  A victory for him would be a victory of national importance for election reform and voting rights.

John's Voters' Bill of Rights includes "a guarantee of open and transparent elections with verified voting, paper trails, and access to the source codes for, and random audits of, electronic voting machines [and]…a guarantee that we the people, through our government, will control our voting machines — not private companies." 

John is apparently not planning to model his service on that of Katherine Harris or Ken Blackwell.

But John Bonifaz is also not your typical liberal candidate.  He is one of the nation's leading experts on voting rights.  Further provisions in his Bill of Rights reflect that background.  They include:

--election day registration;
--early voting;
--ensured absentee voting;
--publicly financed elections and campaign spending limits;
--instant run-off voting;
--cross endorsement voting (fusion voting);

Leaks can be good: secret government sucks

Two modes of government are doing battle in America today. The issue of secrecy in government has never been more important. Few Americans realize how radically the Bush Administration changed our systems and processes in order to deny the average American citizen access to information about what the government is doing in our name!

The leaks about secret prisons being run by the CIA around the world has produced near hysteria in Bush Republican circles. Republicans seem to be spinning the controversy into a scandal about leaks. The actual scandal focus should be almost exclusively focused on secret prisons.

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