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Stop CAFTA

CAFTA passes Senate, we need your help to defeat CAFTA in the House of Representatives!

A decade ago, the U.S. Congress traded away our economic future with back-room deals and passed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since then over 700,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. and 8 million more people in Mexico are living in poverty. The proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will extend this nightmare to 6 more nations.

In the Senate, CAFTA passed in a very close 54-45 vote on June 30th. WE HAVE NOT LOST! This was the closest Senate vote on a trade pact since NAFTA. The bill still has to pass the House, where opposition to CAFTA is much stronger. We have always known that we will have to defeat CAFTA in the House, not the Senate. See: CAFTA information

The FOREFATHERS!

Columbus Dispatch article

To the editor:

According to the Columbus Dispatch (July 1, 2005), the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice has concluded that the Franklin County Board of Elections "did not discriminate when it allocated voting machines" last November. "Too few voting machines, bad data on how many voters were eligible, a sharp increase in voters from the 2000 election and a lengthy ballot in Columbus caused long lines at some polls."

While conceding that the Board of Elections "allocated fewer voting machines overall to 54 predominantly black precincts than it had in 2000," John Tanner concludes in his cover letter that "blacks did not suffer," and that "predominantly white districts averaged 172 voters per machine versus 159 voters per machine in the predominantly black districts." The reason for this is betrayed in his next sentence: "Turnout was nearly 9 percentage points lower in predominantly black districts." Indeed, voter turnout averaged 60% in Bush precincts and 50% in Kerry precincts.

My own studies (Stealing Votes in Columbus, Favoritism

Log Cabin Republicans in Ohio

In the 2004 general election, Ohio was one of several states in which a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage appeared on the ballot. This is widely believed to have resulted in an unprecedented turnout among rural white evangelical Christians, which helped George W. Bush win the presidential election. In Ohio, the proposition was known as “Issue One.”

To investigate the matter, I prepared a table comparing the vote for president with the vote on Issue One, county by county. State wide, Issue One received 61.71% of the vote, whereas Bush, officially, is reputed to have received 50.81% of the vote, a differential of 10.90%. Bush ran 469,567 votes (14.10%) behind the “Yes” votes on Issue One, and Kerry ran 675,705 votes (32.71%) ahead of the “No” votes on Issue One.

Read the entire 15 page document as a PDF

Direct testimony: Presented to Election Assessment Hearing

Direct testimony: Presented to Election Assessment Hearing, Houston, Texas, July 29, 2005

I have investigated the Ohio election results, precinct by precinct, and have found three categories of problems: voter suppression, ballots cast but not counted, and alteration of the vote count.

In the City of Columbus, discriminatory allocation of voting machines led directly to lower turnout in Democratic precincts. Urban Democratic precincts had too few voting machines and long lines; suburban Republican precincts had enough voting machines and short lines; 122 voting machines were not provided to any polling station anywhere. As a result, voter turnout was 60% in Bush precincts, and 50% in Kerry precincts. This wrongly reduced Kerry’s margin of victory in Franklin County by about 17,000 votes.

July 4th Declaration of Impeachment

Veterans GROUP ISSUES "DECLARATION OF IMPEACHMENT" AND ANNOUNCES PETITION TO REMOVE PRESIDENT BUSH St. Louis - A national veterans' organization today issued a "Declaration of Impeachment" and announced it is beginning an online petition to remove President Bush from office for crimes committed during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Using the same language as the original "Declaration of Independence," Veterans For Peace cited many of the same reasons to remove George Bush that Thomas Jefferson cited to separate from King George of England. And in a modern version of the signing of the Declaration, VFP announced the posting of its online impeachment petition.

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny," Jefferson wrote, and then added the famous litany of abuses charged against the king that VFP said is unchanged today:

a.. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. b.. He has.deprive(ed) us in many cases, of the

Turkey is not alone

Gene C. Gerard says that Turkey is a nation with such serious problems that it should not serve as a role model, even for fledgling Islamic democracies.  It is not alone. 

Last December, the French Foreign Minister insisted that Turkey must officially recognise the 1915 genocide before joining the European Union. This made me wonder whether any French government, since the conclusion of the armistice with Germany in June 1940 and before joining Europe, has ever officially recognized responsibility for rounding up French Jews and deporting them to their deaths before the Gestapo thought of doing so.  Latvia, also a member of EU, does not recognize its large Russian minority and does not give them passports for leaving the country.

Green Day roasts the "American Idiot" at the Schottenstein Center

BOOM!

The first song of the Green Day's show just ended. It was a perfect, exciting, loud and pumped start to a great concert.

If you ever have an opportunity to see Green Day perform, take it! Especially if you're a fan...and me being one they definitely exceeded all expectations I may have had for them

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is a great entertainer filled with charisma and spark. He was wonderful, as was backup vocals/bassist Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, the drummer.

All three make a powerful trio. Having been in this business for 16 years, they certainly have improved according to my Dad, since he last saw them at Woodstock in 1994. He said that along with improving, they have gained great political sense, since they are outspoken Bush haters, and have named their tour "The American Idiot" in Bush's "honor". I think it gives them more character.

Even if you aren't a fan the concert is certainly a fun filled night, with loud bangs and crazy crowd jumps!

Boycott Wild Oats

The Freep was skeptical when corporate health food giant Wild Oats came to Central Ohio. We prefer to support the local food co-ops. Nevertheless, Wild Oats wooed the Free Press and we partnered with them as a fiscal agent for various nonprofits who participated in their wooden nickel campaign over the years.

Recently, one of the Free Press paper boys reported that after he delivered the Freep to Wild Oats, it seemed to be disappearing immediately. Suspicious of foul play, we visited the store and inquired about the problem. A clerk called the upstairs manager on the phone and asked him if there was a problem. She hung up and said the manager advised that we shouldn't bother to leave the Free Press there anymore.

When Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis called to inquire about their recent change in policy banning the Free Press, the manager told him that we weren't "banned," there just wasn't room for us. They had too many newspapers and magazines already.

Review of The Orange Blossom Special, Betsy Carter

The Orange Blossom Special, Betsy Carter
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
293 pages; $23.95

Betsy Carter's graceful, sweet novel THE ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL is a tender treat, full of warmth and wisdom, and a pleasure to read.

A long-time editor and inventor of magazines, Betsy has a sixth sense about people and places that make her a rarity among novelists---someone who can write simple, uncomplicated prose without pretense or self-importance while rendering important ideas onto the page and into our hearts.

THE ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL is about a widowed mother, her strong-minded teenage daughter and their struggles to love and grow in the transition from the late 1950s to the tumultuous 1960s.

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