The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) held a Summit in Washington, DC this past weekend at the kind invitation of Shelly Broderick, the Dean of the University of the District of Columbia Law School. The three day event was made possible by the organizational talents of Joe Libertelli and Tim Carpenter and many volunteers from the Carolinas to California. Washington was in a declared state of emergency for the frigidity, but inside the Conference, the warmth was overcoming as many diverse groups shared common vision, strategy and blue wrist bands. The PDA mission is ambitious; with faith in the unseen, they are building an umbrella coalition of many organizations with common purpose; Peace, Justice and Electoral Integrity and Reform. Whatever your first issue is foreign policy, environment, women’s rights, etc. your second issue, we are reminded, has to be Election Integrity and Reform. Without the later, it doesn’t matter how brilliant or right you are in the first; your strategy in those areas will be quickly deflated to hot air without the ability to guarantee that you can actually elect the people who will be instruments for needed change.

Tens of thousands protest the Inauguration of George W. Bush

Thousands took to the streets of Washington, DC to protest the inauguration of George W. Bush. The International Action Center organized contingents from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Raleigh, and many other cities to participate in the demonstrations, hand out literature, and distribute placards.

AUSTIN -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helpfully explained it all for us. The problem is that we are living in an alternative reality. What we think we know is not true. We have always had enough troops in Iraq. There are 120,000 trained Iraqi soldiers ready to take over. The president has condemned torture, so what else is there to say? Why torture happened, whose fault it is and why it is still happening at Guantanamo is not a problem because the president has condemned it. Secretary Rice also condemns it, so why raise questions about the fact that she wrote a letter to get an anti-torture clause in the intelligence appropriation bill taken out?

What, do you want to insult her integrity?

Secretary Rice did say that mistakes were made, but she does not know who made them or who should be held accountable. And, of course, as we all learned during the last election, no matter what happens, it is never, ever President Bush's fault.

Objections to a swift decision on Alberto Gonzalez, stemming especially from Sen. Kennedy's concerns about his responses to questions about torture, have delayed the vote on whether to confirm him as Attorney General.

This gives us a momentary window in time to slow down or even halt the confirmation, and to make the record of the truth about the Administration's use of torture.  SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO USE THIS MOMENT.

Gonzalez' responses to Judiciary Committee questions about the actuality of torture were evasive, full of "I don't remember" in regard to a very important and unprecedented memo he gave the President (a surprising thing to forget) and on memos he received about it from lawyers in the Justice Department.

And he explicitly repeated the Bush Administration's assertion that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to people the Administration labels "enemy combatants."

Even worse, he has not been willing to repudiate the definition of torture that was so extreme that most forms of torture would be permitted.

The torture carried by YUS soldiers was not only at Abu Ghraib but also at

I wish to acknowledge the work of Pat Lent, Brian Taylor and Cindy Darrah who contributed research and ideas for this paper. Dan Kornacki converted the data from Lucas County into an Excel Spreadsheet.

This report contains overwhelming evidence of voter suppression in Lucas County, Ohio.

A list of voters who voted provisionally was obtained from the Lucas County Board of Elections. The report listed name, address, precinct voted in and reason for the vote being invalidated. Voter turnout data by precinct was obtained from the Lucas County Board of Elections website. Other information was obtained over the telephone from the Lucas County Board of Elections and the Wayne County City Clerk’s office.

A large number of citizens voted by provisional ballot in Lucas County on November 2nd and most of the uncounted provisional votes were cast in Toledo.

Lucas County Provisional Votes
Total Provisional Votes - 4,469
Votes Not Counted - 3,123
Provisional Votes Counted - 1,346