March 19, 2005—After the 2004 election I thought I would barf if I heard one more Democratic pundit or politician lament the lost election and blame it on the party's "message." As grassroots activists across the country reported thousands of election irregularities and voting machine "glitches" that overwhelmingly benefited Bush, the Democratic leadership seemed unusually willing to look the other way. John Kerry quickly conceded, former President Carter attended Bush's ignoble inauguration, and Bill Clinton now pals around with Bush the First.

Rank and file Democrats are tearing their hair out.

Now, in a gesture calculated to win back their base, but gain little else (in terms of voting security), both House and Senate Democrats have offered a flurry of bills (with many state legislatures following in hot pursuit) that require ballot printers for touchscreen voting machines.

Incredibly, none of these bills call for the ballots to be counted .. except in the extremely remote event of a recount.

It takes your breath away. The Dems know that two Republican-controlled

The first quarter of 2005 brought significant media dividends for the Bush-Cheney limited liability corporation.

Stakeholders received windfalls as mainstream news outlets deferred to consolidation of power from the November election.

A rollout of new “democracy” branding -- kicked off by the State of the Union product relaunch -- yielded at least temporary gains in psychological market share. For instance, repackaging of images in the Middle East implemented makeovers for several client governments. Actual democratic threats, inimical to Bush-Cheney LLC interests, remain low.

Our major domestic financial goal, the privatization of Social Security, is out of reach for the next several quarters. However, in view of the magnitude of potential profits, this massive effort will continue.

More problematic, in retrospect, was the March expenditure of political capital in the Schiavo gambit. Returns on media investment, as gauged by opinion poll data, have been disappointing. However, base earnings are likely to accrue to beneficial levels due to high volume from fundamentalist buy-ins.

St. Louis – A national veterans’ organization today called for the removal of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney for crimes committed during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In a letter sent to each member of the U.S. House and Senate, Veterans For Peace (VFP) stated that “...This administration’s war on Iraq, in addition to being increasingly unpopular among Americans, is an unmistakable violation of our Constitution and federal law which you have sworn to uphold.  In our system, the remedy for such high crimes is clear: this administration must be impeached.” 

  To read the letter to Congress, and the U.S. and international laws the administration has violated, please follow this link: http://www.veteransforpeace.org/impeachment/impeachment.htm.  

On Monday, March 21,2005 at the State House, the House Administration Committee, chaired by Republican Representative Bob Ney, held a hearing on what went wrong in the November 2, 2004 election in Ohio. ONN TV aired Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s testimony. His performance was hostile and embarrassing as he clashed repeatedly with Democratic Representatives Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Rep. Juanita Millender-Donaldson of California. For those of us interested in the truth, Mr. Blackwell’s behavior was outrageous and arrogant. This has been a pattern in the past, for instance, when he appeared on the Lou Dobbs television show, but his latest actions have placed him in the Name That Fool category. Being Black Activists, we are ashamed and disappointed by Blackwell’s conduct. Has Mr. Blackwell forgotten that he is an elected official? It is his duty and responsibility to answer any questions we have regarding the procedure of the election and the outcome of such.

AUSTIN, Texas -- As a general rule about Bush & Co., the more closely a policy is associated with Dick Cheney, the worse it is. Which brings us to energy policy -- remember his secret task force? In the long history of monumentally bad ideas, the Cheney policy is a standout for reasons of both omission and commission. Dumb, dumber and dumbest.

Ponder this: Next year, the administration will phase out the $2,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle, which gets over 50 miles per gallon, but will leave in place the $25,000 tax write-off for a Hummer, which gets 10-12 mpg. That's truly crazy, and that's truly what the whole Cheney energy policy is.

According to the Energy Information Administration in the Department of Energy, last year's energy bill (same as this one) would cost taxpayers at least $31 billion, do nothing about the projected over-80 percent increase in America's imports of foreign oil by 2025 and increase gasoline prices. (Since every bureaucrat who tells the truth in this administration -- about the cost of the drug bill or the safety of Vioxx -- seems to get the ax, I'm probably getting those folks in trouble.)