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CAFTA's hollow reforms

In Guatemala sexual harassment is not illegal. In El Salvador and Honduras hundreds of thousands of children work illegally. The minimum wage for a Nicaraguan manufacturer worker is $55.74 a month, less than what a U.S. union worker with a similar job will make in a day.

There are also reports in Central America of worker blacklists, physical abuse by employers, and foreign companies closing operations after being informed workers want to form a union. None of these countries are in compliance with international labor standards. I could go on for pages. And actually I have, by reading the U.S. State Department’s annual Human Rights report.

“The enforcement of labor laws in the region needs more attention and resources,” said assistant U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeir in testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee last month.

Does ES&S really want to sell the Automark machines?

Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) has a marketing agreement with AutoMARK Technical Services (ATS) to be the sole purveyor of the AutoMARK voting machine. ATS can market the system, but pricing and contracts are all handled by ES&S. In March of 2004, when ES&S announced the agreement, Aldo Tesi, ES&S president and CEO said, "we recognize the incredible responsibility we have in supporting the democratic process and ensuring it is open and accessible to all voters."[1]

A few months later, when ES&S representative Mike Devereaux praised the AutoMARK over touch screens, it appeared that ES&S had partnered with ATS in order to take advantage of the growing demand for paper ballots.[2] The company's subsequent business decisions seem to say otherwise.

Open Letter to Senator George Voinovich

Dear Senator Voinovich,

I've seen many situations similar to the one you now face regarding the John Bolton confirmation and your Republican Party. I myself once worked for the Republican National Committee, Sen. Connie Mack, and Rep. Porter Goss.

I want to applaud you for having the courage to speak out against Mr. Bolton and the confirmation process.

After this painful episode, you may decide that you no longer wish to be a Republican. If this is the case, I want you to know that the Libertarian Party of Ohio is here for you.

I know that you've probably heard many malicious rumors regarding the Libertarian Party, not unlike the same vicious rumors Republicans are now circulating about you. Many of us were Republicans until we got run over by the party machine and realized how evil it can be.

I know that you want to really reduce government taxes and spending and that you hold federalist principles dear. I'd be happy to speak with you on these issues. In the Libertarian Party, we value people who stick with their principles, even when we disagree.

In Liberty,
Robert Butler

Bob Fitrakis on tour with book exposing Ohio election fraud

The national launch of the new book by Bob Fitrakis, DID GEORGE W. BUSH STEAL AMERICA’S 2004 ELECTION? ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS, begins on June 15, 2005.

“In contrast to the deadly silence of the media is the silent scream of the numbers. The more you ponder these numbers, and all the accompanying data, the louder that scream grows.” —Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

This book is filled with numbers and data showing what really happened in the 2004 election in Ohio. It includes many crucial source materials, commentary and investigative reports—including the complete text of the Conyers report, prepared by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff. It is a must read for all people concerned about saving democracy and ensuring free and fair elections in the future.

Superheros

There's their way or the Galloway

So now we have the worst of all worlds: the prospect of some rotten new federal judges and the survival of the filibuster, which the Republicans have consented not to abolish and the Democrats pledged never to use.

As Sen. Russ Feingold said, "Democrats should have stood together firmly . Confirming unacceptable judicial nominations is simply a green light for the Bush administration."

Since I spent my youth reading fervent denunciations of the filibuster as the tool of southern reaction, I found it beyond my powers to take the urgent advice of liberals over the past month, shed the prejudices of a lifetime and promote the filibuster to the status of progressivism's stout bulwark.

And Now, It's Time For ... "Media Jeopardy!"

The endless show that seems to fill America's every waking moment -- and many of its nightmares -- could be called "Media Jeopardy!"

Before proceeding, here’s a reminder of the rules: Listen to the answer and then try to come up with the question.

Let’s get started. The first category is “Media Untouchables.”

* They’re an ideological pair and stylistic opposites. On television, one is a slathering fount of bombast, the other is icy cerebellum, but both are widely syndicated columnists dedicated to helping the right wing of the Republican Party. One had a role in the scandal involving the Bush administration’s payback “outing” of a critic’s wife who was a CIA undercover agent. The other has been guilty of numerous ethical lapses, from unacknowledged conflicts-of-financial-interest to utilizing debate-prep papers stolen from the Carter White House to coach then-challenger Ronald Reagan in the fall of 1980. Yet neither man seems to suffer professional or legal consequences.

Who are Robert Novak and George Will?

* This cable network, partly owned by a major Pentagon contractor,

The irony surplus

AUSTIN, Texas -- I often complain about the excess of irony in our national life, but this week, if you're not begoshed by the irony surplus, you haven't been paying attention. If we could just figure out a way to get energy out of the stuff, we'd be set for life.

Liberals for the filibuster; conservatives against it -- hilarious. Pentagon loses track of more than $1 trillion, and the Army can't find 56 airplanes, 32 tanks and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units. Not to mention Osama bin Ladin. And more:

-- Right-wing Republicans fight to make the world safe from "judicial activists" by appointing Priscilla Owen -- the biggest, baddest, worstest judicial activist Texas ever produced -- to the federal bench.

Owen is so notorious for reading her own opinions into the law, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, then her colleague on the Texas Supreme Court, described her opinion in a parental consent case as "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." (For further irony, see Gonzales' subsequent attempts to deny that he was describing Owen.)

RE: FITRAKIS: Fired Ohio Election Board staffer defiant over "retribution"

We all know that election was phony from start to finish...where in the hell are the journalists....to support the whistleblowers... the journalists have become a bunch of frigging incompetent cowards.

Donna

Was Hocking County Board of Elections member illegally appointed?

The battle between Deputy Director Sherole Eaton, a recently fired federal whistleblower, and the Hocking County Board of Elections (BOE) she worked for, is becoming a bare-knuckled political brawl.

The Free Press has learned that Eaton supporters will protest at the Hocking County BOE Thursday, May 26 and plan to allege that Susan Hughes, a Democrat who seconded the motion to fire Eaton, is illegally on the BOE.

During last December’s presidential election recount, Eaton signed a sworn affidavit that a Triad, Inc. voting machine technician came into the BOE without being scheduled and changed out the county’s vote-tabulation computer hard drive. Eaton also claimed that he offered a “cheat sheet” to make sure the recount tally matched the original election results.

The Logan Daily News reported that BOE members privately complained “that Eaton was a disruptive influence in the office.” But, all BOE members “refused to be quoted on the record.”

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