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On Election Day 2004, how will you know if your vote is properly counted? Answer: You won’t!

Voter machine paper trail legislation for free and fair elections Our most basic civil right is under assault on many fronts. Voting.

Rep. Rush Holt has introduced legislation to require all voting machines to produce a voter-verified paper trail. Holt today responded to the growing chorus of concern from election reform specialists and computer security experts about the integrity of future elections by introducing reform legislation, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003. The measure would require that by 2004 all voting machines produce an actual paper record voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a “voter-verified paper trail.”

Campaign finance alone is not enough!

Taxpayer protection & campaign finance: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

Progressives know that in our system, access to government and to elected officials is bought and paid for by campaign contributions. Most citizens of Columbus know this, regardless of their political leanings.
Conflicts-of-Interest

But it is rare, if ever, that Campaign Finance initiatives contain conflict-of-interest provisions. Of the 48 tax abatements granted by the city from 1998 to 2000, almost half were to entities that contributed to Columbus City Council members or the two Mayors. If you include money from those entities that received TIFs, (Tax-Increment Financing) “Economic Development Subsidies,” and unbid contracts, the vast majority of campaign funds come from those doing business with the city. So what can be done?

The Iraq War, continued...

The invasion of Iraq – a country severely weakened by 12 ½ years of genocidal sanctions and disarmed by the U.N. at the insistence of the attackers – was not a war. It was a war crime. It appears now that the real problem wasn’t bad intelligence, but rather the “misrepresentation” of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. public and the rest of the world. (Washington Post, June 7, 2003) In the rush to implement the vision of total world domination by U.S. military force rooted in the “Defense Planning Guidance” written by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in 1992, a constant barrage of lies about connections to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction were hurled at the United Nations and at the U.S. public through the corporation-controlled media to justify an illegal “preventive” war.

Freep Heroes

Freep Hero

Gregory Palast

Thank God for freedom of the press. At least it’s working in Britain. The Freep honors Gregory Palast, a British journalist, as its hero. Palast’s reporting on the Bush family finances, their staged CIA-style demonstration elections in Florida and Bush, Sr.’s worldwide intervention for western corporations which then results in kickbacks to Jr.’s campaign coffers, are better than anything you’ll read in the U.S. press. Of course, U.S. corporate conglomerates, their CEOs, CFOs, directors and officers are precisely the people that Palast has been outing in his articles for the London Observer and other media outlets. Check him out at gregpalast.com.

The Free Press Salutes

Governor Taft

War costs our children’s future

President Bush has asked Congress for $76 billion to pay the initial costs of the war in Iraq. For the same amount of money, we could hire 1,155,715 elementary school teachers to educate America’s Children.

  • One second of war in Iraq ($12,730) = Twice what the U.S. spends per year, per child, in primary education ($6,043)
    Digest of Education Statistics.
  • One minute of war in Iraq ($763,000) = Headstart Education for 115 children ($6,633 per child)
    National Priorities Project.
  • 2.8 hours of war in Iraq ($45.8 million per hour) = Nutrition supplements for 200,000 eligible families not covered ($130 million)
    Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
  • Five days of war in Iraq ($1.1 billion per day) = Eliminate illiteracy worldwide ($5 billion)
    World Game Institute
    • Compiled by Frida Berrigan, Senior Research Associated, World Policy Institute.

    Three Cheers!!!

    Dear Editor,

    Hi, I just want to say THREE CHEERS!!!! We have to believe truth will set us free... and it’s about time someone besides Michael Moore took umbrage with the BS of polls suggesting this imbecile, cold blooded KILLER is a popular leader... like you nailed it, if the press wasn’t so into a sycophant role of laying Hosannas as this antiChrist’s (?) feet, maybe we’d see an uproar... it’s a mixture of “give ‘em cake” mixed with “a sucker is born every minute,” with a final dose of “short attention span theater” thrown in... I hear 60’s songs in my head now, as if resurrecting the all but forgotten dreams, that our generation, like Hamlet, not forget our almost blunted purpose... to maintain LIGHT in the world as these dark lords rise to ascendancy on might alone... knowing JUSTICE slows down the other guy, the ones who “give a damn about their fellow man....” If Gore starts the liberal radio network, 60’s music to re-rouse our ideals would be a good start. After all, seems to me all the hate in rap and all the obscene boom box pounding is either Hiroshima’s revenge or some kind of atavistic drum pounding to signal war a’perpetually coming... thanks again.

    Where’s the Safety Now?

    Keep in mind that whenever the Columbus Public Schools system determines that it needs our money, a theme central to nearly every campaign for dollars is safety. When the facilities bond issue was to go to ballot, it was safety. When the operating levy was to go to the ballot, it was how certain cuts could affect services and safety. Whenever they need our money, the theme is safety. With the most recent allegations of district employees using our children as their sexual playmates, where’s the issue of safety now?

    In every superintendent’s administration comes a test of the character, cadence, register and resolve of its leadership. Columbus Public Schools has had no shortage of memorable opportunities that not only challenged the integrity and grit of the leadership, but defined it for those of us who were paying attention.

    Why go vegetarian?

    “Animals are God’s creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God’s sight.” -- Rev. Andrew Linzey Oxford University, Animal Theology

    Believe it or not, animals have feelings too. We feel pain, sadness, happiness, grief, joy and disgust. We can be mischievous and irritable. We experience humiliation, pride and love. Most humans don’t see it, but we are emotionally a lot like you. Would you eat your friends?

    “The decision that has led millions of people to stop eating other animals is not rooted in arid adherence to diet or dogma, but in the desire to eliminate the kinds of experiences that using animals for food confers upon beings with feelings,” said a wise human, Karen Davis, PhD, Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs, 1996.

    Sitting Shiva, A Novel by Elliot Feldman

    Published by: Foxrock Books (Dec. 2002)
    Paperback: 201 pgs., 10 illustrations by author: $12.95

    It didn’t take me seven days, the length of mourning for the dead in Judaism, to read Sitting Shiva – more like seven hours straight. But it was time well spent with the first book of Elliot Feldman’s Detroit trilogy. There’s a dash of Elmore Leonard here, mixed with a pinch of Bukowski’s realism, but I like to think of the terse prose as Hemmingway on acid.

    Not that Feldman wrote the book on acid, but it reads like a Woodstock generation acid flashback. Feldman’s been a cartoonist since the 60s, appearing in the early underground press including Detroit’s legendary Fifth Estate. His ten illustrations give the book that 70s Hunter S. Thompson/Ralph Steadman feel.

    Having worked 20 years in Hollywood crafting one-liners and game shows for TV producers, Feldman doesn’t waste prose. When he’s funny, it’s often poignantly so. The lines are honed into gritty, tragic humor reflective of the fate of my hometown, the Motor City.

    Cut funding for new nuclear weapons

    The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the energy and water appropriations bill (S.1424) in September, after the August recess. This bill includes funding for the Department of Energy's (DOE) nuclear weapons programs. The Administration is seeking $15 million to fund continued research on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or nuclear "bunker buster," and $6 million for research on other advanced nuclear weapons concepts.

    On Friday, July 18, the House passed its version of the energy and water appropriations bill. In a courageous move, the House cut most of the money requested ($10 million of the $15 million request) for a new "bunker buster" nuclear weapon and all of the $6 million allocated for Advanced Concepts for nuclear weapons. This was a great victory for arms control. However, for this victory to be solidified, the Senate must act with the same conscience

    ACTION: Please contact your Senators. Urge them to vote for amendments to block funding for new nuclear weapons.

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