Howard Dean is first.

The Democrats like to fix elections too.

Hey you guys, people are not informing the old thread that the new thread is up. 

I'm beginning to feel very unwanted, left behind.  :-( 

(I went back and tattled) 

Charles, I get a sinking feeling every time I contemplate the corrupt failed policies and practices of the current regime.

All I can do about it is is identify, register, organize and energize the good folks who still believe in Democracy and integrity. Thanks again, GovDoc Dean for the power.

The NY Times says the Clinton campaign is exploiting the Wright issue with Super D's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/us/pol...

sorry if this has been posted.

Nite.

Steve*in*Nebraska ♥'s yup

Happy Birthday to Catreona's mom :-)

Paine, Reed ~ no, I'm not the Amazing Kreskin, lol :-P

Connection comes and goes and unbelivably, at&t says DSL isn't available here! how can that be? In any case, jsut in case I disappear...

♥'s to all

Kindness is free!

oh, and belated Happy 1/2 Bday to Paine's twin bro :-)

1:44 am est

Some quotes from good Democrats, and a very odd one from Hillary.

We are five years along in this war. Some Dems still spin, some do not and never did. Some quotes.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1922

Is the Pentagon Policy Shop Funding Likudist Fronts? Why is the Pentagon policy office awarding a no-bid contract to an organization whose institutional relationships and affiliations appear so opposed to official U.S. policy and which is so utterly lacking in transparency?

Blackwater Seeps Into the Campaign Jeremy Scahill, writing in the Nation and picked up by Common Dreams, gives information concerning where Clinton & Obama stand on the Blackwater issue. Some unspinning going on here.

(hard to know if she'd keep this promise) 

Japanese unveil a novel way to walk on water GIANT inflatable balls that allow you to walk on water – already a craze in Japan – have arrived in North Wales. The concept of the Water Walkerz is simple – you climb into the ball through a little gap, then someone blows it up with you in it. You then head towards the swimming pool and attempt to skim across it, much like a self-conscious hamster with poor co-ordination.

Judy, is this getting any press across the pond?

The Nation Must Heed the Horrifyng Words of the Winter Soldiers

Nite, bloggies. Be well.

Nite from me too, recovering from a 103 fever last night and need to be ready to be on the road to MA over the weekend :-)

♥'s to all

Kindness is free!

3:10 am est

popping back in.

thankful, that's a high fever.   Sending Light Waves your way. :-)

4:05 EDST 

Woke up - knew something was amiss wirh a good and dear friend somewhere.

Hang in there Thankful !

message sent. 

Long live Posted!

Good morning, BFA!

*********
Sitka ... thanks for your common sense words generally about tarring whole peoples because of the terrible actions of the few. Yes, that could apply to us Americans for actions of the putz cabal.

Perhaps, however, if we Americans had had more experience with collective punishment such as Europeans had, we would be able to have more balance generally about the I/P situation. It is not black and white.

Most of the world sees Palestinian resistance to Israeli presence in Gaza and the West Bank as legitimate resistance to an illegal occupation. If there were more balance in US foreign policy there, this resistance would have no reason to exist and could have been defanged long ago.

*********
Across the border in France, within an hour's drive from here, is the plateau of Glières, which was the stronghold for one of the French resistance groups in WWII. It was located in what was at the time *Vichy France* where there was French *autonomy* to support Nazi directives as opposed to *Occupied France* in the north where the Nazis enforced their rule directly.

Members of the French resistance were not choirboys (or girls), nor did they hesitate to use terrorism to disrupt Nazi supply lines or manoeuvers. Often, as always happens in such cases, civilians (most of them French, of course) were haplessly caught up in the bloodshed. In the circumstances, those French who supported the Vichy Government, i.e., the Nazi Occupation, were pitted directly against their own neighbors and family members. Several scores were settled after the war and very nastily, as you might imagine. In other instances, people remained discreet and lived alongside each other after the war, forgiving to some extent, if not always forgetting.

This is one reason why so many stories of peoples' exploits during the era only finally began to be told in the late 90s and through today. Many were encouraged to come forward by Jewish Holocaust survivors, many now living in Israel, who had only survived the era because of the efforts of resistance and escape groups. They remembered those who had been courageous enough to save them and wished that those efforts be commemorated, as they have since been in Israel itself.

The Allied Forces finally supported the French resistance late in the Occupation, although even when they did, they did not do so consistently and not always successfully. The Free French representatives had to work very hard to convince the Allied Forces of the utility of the resistance and luckily, they were able to. Had it not been for their acts of sabotage and resistance (i.e., terrorism) the Allies would have found the retaking of France from the Nazis and their enablers a much more difficult task.

So Europeans in general have a bit more understanding of the Palestinian POV. That does not make them *anti-Semitic,* as some have charged. Indeed, there are many persons of Jewish origin, whether practicing their faith or not, who are in positions of power throughout contemporary Europe, including Switzerland. Many have relatives in Israel. Yet, that does not prevent them from promoting balance in their approach to the I/P situation.

Nicolas Sarkozy, currently President of France, is himself Jewish. This week, he actually went to the plateau of Glières to pay tribute to those who lost their lives there, as well as to their families and supporters. One man's terrorists are another man's heroes. And that is the European POV.

We Americans are able to see that with almost any other situation in the world, just not the I/P situation.

And although this really has nothing to do with the price of rice in China, my newest neighbors in this building, whom I met yesterday, are Jewish. They will have the apartment upstairs from mine.

For any who are interested in knowing more about the plateau of Glières or the French resistance generally, here is a wiki piece to get you started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquis_des_...

Thankful, be well! Really sorry to hear about the fever.

**********
sea, I haven't seen anything specific to the Winter Soldiers. That doesn't mean that it isn't there. It just means that it isn't where I have looked.

***********
Be sure to watch Bill Moyers this week.

=============
Bill Moyers interviews former talk show host Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro on the true cost of war and their documentary, Body of War, depicting the moving story of one veteran dealing with the aftermath of war.

With extensive excerpts from the film, the filmmakers talk about Iraq war veteran Tomas Young, who was shot and paralyzed less than a week into his tour of duty. Three years in the making, Body of War tells the poignant tale of the young man's journey from joining the service after 9/11 to fight in Afghanistan, to living with devastating wounds after being deployed to Iraq instead.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XTV_JSyLncE

Courtesy of DU's *Hissyspit,* here is a great collection of photos from yesterday's anti-war protests.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

Hans Blix told us then. He's reminding us five years later.

Yet putz bleats on and the MSM keeps enabling.

There are none so blind as those who have eyes but refuse to see.

===============
A war of utter folly
Responsibility for this spectacular tragedy must lie with those who ignored the facts five years ago
Hans Blix
The Guardian, Thursday March 20 2008

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions.

The elimination of weapons of mass destruction was the declared main aim of the war. It is improbable that the governments of the alliance could have sold the war to their parliaments on any other grounds. That they believed in the weapons' existence in the autumn of 2002 is understandable. Why had the Iraqis stopped UN inspectors during the 90s if they had nothing to hide? Responsibility for the war must rest, though, on what those launching it knew by March 2003.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Anni: I really enjoyed your photos, all of them. Meant to say that right away, but got carried away in yet another *treatise.*

Glad to hear that you are safely back among us.

Here's yesterday's column from Dan Froomkin. There are a couple from earlier this week that are also worth reading.

Froomkin, together with the interactive Sudoku and Crossword puzzles, is one of the only reasons that I even go to the WaPo site any more.

=================
Bush's Triumphalist Amnesia
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2008; 12:52 PM

On the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, President Bush today attempted to recast it as a great success for the United States and a major blow to Osama bin Laden. But for the American people to go along with his construction will require a pretty severe case of amnesia.

The security situation in Iraq is undeniably somewhat better than it was a year ago, before Bush increased the number of American troops there to more than 160,000. But the violence nevertheless continues at an appalling level. And the political reconciliation the "surge" was intended to bring about remains a distant fantasy.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Happy First Day of Spring!

But here are some sobering thoughts about that.

Now, it's time to get cracking around here. Have good ones!

===============
How the blurring of the seasons is a harbinger of climate calamity
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Thursday, 20 March 2008

Spring, which officially starts today, is starting to dissolve as a distinct season as climate change takes hold.

According to documented observations throughout 2007 and 2008, events in the natural world that used to be key spring indicators, from the blooming of flowers to the appearance of insects, are now increasingly happening in what used to be thought of as mid-winter, as Britain's temperatures steadily rise.

Although many people may see the changes as quaint or charming – butterflies certainly brighten up a January day – they are actually among the first concrete signs that the world is indeed set on a global warming course which is likely to prove disastrous if not checked.

[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment...

Good morning, everybody

I think it rained all night and we're due for major flooding since the ground is still frozen under the snow. 

That report from Baghdad via the BBC was revealing, but I'm afraid that prejudice has set in and most viewers will assume that the Iraqis are responsible for having trashed their own country and if walls had to be put up it was because they were warring with each other like street gangs.  That some people are going to market and sitting in cafes is not going to be informative of anything but that the Iraqis are lazy and haven't cleaned up the trash.

Nevertheless, I'll link it on Hannah. 

Judy

thanks for the straight forward truth telling, wonder where we got that habit around here

I am in the middle of the platform process, our little committee has several faiths represented and no knives will be drawn.

I need some of that NSA software to search through for key words and bundle similar thoughts and collate it for subcommittee work, but I'll bet it would come out like the bloggie woes.

ctrl c ctrl v repeat, and putting it together by hand which makes for intimate familiarity for me with the 15 documents if nothing else

there are no differences that I can see that will cause a fight between the Obama/Clinton divide

a lot of environmental concerns passed the county conventions and we package that with agriculture for sub-committee work

word limits make an editing and prioritization process, most of the voting becomes the fight over what to leave out

seashell - the first time I heard Willaim Rivers Pitt speak was at a Veterans for Peace conference in 2003 that ran on CSpan - and I was hooked!  brilliant man - don't agree with all he says, all the time, but probably about 90% of it!  a look back...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081403A.shtml

I have warned about the flooding for weeks, you could see it coming. Vermont is set up are we, but snow is forecast instead of rain for this weekend and it will help slow things down. Arkansas and Missouri look like we did here in SE MN and SW WI last August.

I'm so sick of this lying b!tch - YES - I SAID B!TCH - it fits. 

clip... Hillary Clinton has just become the most significant US political figure to come out in favor of banning Blackwater and other armed private security contractors from operating in Iraq. "When I am President I will ask the Joint Chiefs for their help in reducing reliance on armed private military contractors with the goal of ultimately implementing a ban on such contractors," she declared in a major policy speech on Monday.

    Her position is a welcome development for those in the Congress, such as Illinois Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who have long sought to rein in private security contractors.

    In her speech, Clinton slammed Obama on this issue, saying, "Senator Obama and I have a substantive disagreement here. He won't rule out continuing to use armed private military contractors in Iraq to do jobs that historically have been done by the US military or government personnel." The Clinton campaign wants voters to believe it is that simple. It is not.

    First, Clinton's timing is suspect. She has served for five years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has done nothing to end the use of Blackwater and other private security forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. In the aftermath of the September 2007 Nisour Square massacre, during which Blackwater operatives gunned down seventeen Iraqi civilians, Clinton condemned the company's conduct but declined to sign on as a co-sponsor to legislation introduced by Sanders and Schakowsky in November 2007 seeking to ban Blackwater and other mercenary companies.

clip...  On Monday, Obama struck back. "Now, let me be clear: I actually introduced legislation in the Senate before Senator Clinton even mentioned this that said we had to crack down on private contractors like Blackwater because I don't believe that they should be able to run amok and put our own troops in danger, get paid three or four times or ten times what our soldiers are getting paid. I am the one who has been opposed to those operators. Senator Clinton is a late comer to that. But you know this is what happens during political season and I understand it."

    In February 2007, Obama introduced contractor reform and oversight legislation that has become the Democrats' major plan in the Congress. Obama's bill seeks to make all contractors subject to prosecution in US civilian courts for crimes committed on a foreign battlefield. The bill is not without its problems. In theory, FBI investigators would deploy to the crime scene, gather evidence and interview witnesses, leading to indictments and prosecutions.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908D.shtml

Historians will argue over whether it was Bush's economic failures or his trashing of our international standing that crowned his title as WORST PRESIDENT EVER. the real race to the bottom he is having with himself

the contest the rest of the way is who can organize precincts the best to ID and GOTV, and it is how McCain will be defeated as well

Obama has done well utilizing volunteers with staff and he can't let up now

that takes money too, but it is a solid investment for the fall

time to pony up one more time

Good morning. Rainy morning in N FL. If it weren't for Judy's overnight links, we would not know what is going on in the world. With all that IS going on our news coverage is wall to wall Obama's preacher. We've got the laziest press in the world. Judy I met several French folks in S Argentina - it seems like Europe in many ways down there to me and in BA too. I enjoyed what you wrote about the French resistance. Somewhere on TV last night - no link - too lazy -- I heard that what was keeping violence down in Iraq was payoffs - that we were bribing people not to fight. And someone intimating that for war opponents, for one to have to pay off the other did not indicate a winner. I'm pretty sure I didn't dream this but not at all sure where I read or heard it. Glad y'all enjoyed the pix - I think that glaciers, like active volcanoes, must be seen in person to really appreciate the awesome power of Mother Nature. Must finish my pop tart and get dressed for school.

7:19 AM EST

3992

7:33 AM EST

Now I see why most Americans are willing to give Iraq War authorization signators Hillary Clinton and John McCain a pass, because most Americans regarding Iraq are unsure of how the United States got here :

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080320/ts_csm/airaqthree_1

Five years in Iraq: a deep disquiet in the US

By Peter Grier

Thu Mar 20, 4:00 AM ET

Washington - The Iraq war has been perhaps America's bitterest lesson since Vietnam in the realities of war and geopolitics – profoundly altering ordinary citizens' sense of their country, its essential abilities, and the overall role it plays in the world.

Poll after poll shows that Americans are worried about US troops. They're distressed at the war's rising human and financial cost and are fully aware of the globe's rising tide of anti-Americanism. Most of all, they may be confused – unsure of how the United States got here, uncertain about what to do next, and in doubt about how, and when, the conflict will end.

...

Anii - found this re: payoffs not to fight - will research a bit more to see if any of this has weight...

clip... The real purpose of the "surge" was to hide another deception. The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack U.S. forces. That's right, 80,000 members of an "Awakening group," the "Sons of Iraq," a newly formed "U.S.-allied security force" consisting of Sunni insurgents, are being paid $10 a day each not to attack U.S. troops. Allegedly, the Sons of Iraq are now at work fighting al-Qaeda.

This is a much cheaper way to fight a war. We can only wonder why Bush didn't figure it out sooner.

The "surge" was also timed to take account of the near completion of neighborhood cleansing. Most of the violence in Iraq during the past five years has resulted from Sunnis and Shi'ites driving each other out of mixed neighborhoods. Had the two groups been capable of uniting against the U.S. troops, the U.S. would have been driven out of Iraq long ago. Instead, the Iraqis slaughtered each other and fought the Americans in their spare time.

In other words, the "surge" has had nothing to do with any decline in violence.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19384.htm

Anni - yet another source - NPR:

clip... But another part, and possibly the most significant, can be traced to the end of last May. That month, 126 U.S. troops died; it was the second deadliest month for U.S. forces during the war. Petraeus was under pressure to reduce those casualties.

"Petraeus seems to have concluded that it was essential to cut deals with the Sunni insurgents if he was going to succeed in reducing U.S. casualties," Macgregor says.

The military now calls those "deals" the Concerned Local Citizens program or simply, CLCs.

It's a somewhat abstract euphemism. The CLC program turns groups of former insurgents, including fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq, into paid, temporary allies of the U.S. military.

McCaffrey just got back from a five-day trip to Iraq where, he says, he "went to a couple of these CLCs, you know, five awkward-looking guys with their own AKs standing at a road junction with two magazines of ammunition — and they're there as early warning to protect their families in that village. I think that that's good."

Creating a New Force

Some 70,000 former insurgents are now being paid $10 a day by the U.S. military. It costs about a quarter billion dollars a year.

It's a controversial strategy, and Macgregor warns that it's creating a parallel military force in Iraq that is made up almost entirely of Sunni Muslims.

"We need to understand that buying off your enemy is a good short-term solution to gain a respite from violence," he says, "but it's not a long-term solution to creating a legitimate political order inside a country that, quite frankly, is recovering from the worst sort of civil war."

That civil war has subsided, for now. It's diminished because of massive, internal migration, a movement of populations that has created de-facto ethnic cantons.

"Segregation works is effectively what the U.S. military is telling you," Macgregor says. "We have facilitated, whether on purpose or inadvertently, the division of the country. We are capitalizing on that now, and we are creating new militias out of Sunni insurgents. We're calling them concerned citizens and guardians. These people are not our friends, they do not like us, they do not want us in the country. Their goal is unchanged."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

7:52 AM EST

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=233783

October 10, 2002

Floor Speech of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on S.J. Res. 45, A Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq

As Delivered

Today we are asked whether to give the President of the United States authority to use force in Iraq should diplomatic efforts fail to dismantle Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons and his nuclear program.

...

In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members

...

Because bipartisan support for this resolution makes success in the United Nations more likely, and therefore, war less likely, and because a good faith effort by the United States, even if it fails, will bring more allies and legitimacy to our cause, I have concluded, after careful and serious consideration, that a vote for the resolution best serves the security of our nation. If we were to defeat this resolution or pass it with only a few Democrats, I am concerned that those who want to pretend this problem will go way

...

perhaps my decision is influenced by my eight years of experience on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House watching my husband deal with serious challenges to our nation. I want this President, or any future President, to be in the strongest possible position to lead our country in the United Nations or in war. Secondly, I want to insure that Saddam Hussein makes no mistake about our national unity and for our support for the President's efforts to wage America's war against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. And thirdly, I want the men and women in our Armed Forces to know that if they should be called upon to act against Iraq, our country will stand resolutely behind them.

...

So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him - use these powers wisely and as a last resort. And it is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein - this is your last chance - disarm or be disarmed.

Thank you, Mr. President.

8:13 AM EST

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 107th Congress - 2nd Session

as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

Vote Summary

Question: On the Joint Resolution (H.J.Res. 114 ) Vote Number: 237Vote Date: October 11, 2002, 12:50 AMRequired For Majority: 1/2Vote Result: Joint Resolution PassedMeasure Number: H.J.Res. 114Measure Title: A joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.Vote Counts:YEAs77NAYs23

...

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAS 77

...

Biden (D-DE)
...
Brownback (R-KS)
...
Clinton (D-NY)
...
Dodd (D-CT)
...
Edwards (D-NC)

...

Kerry (D-MA)

...

McCain (R-AZ)

...

NAYs ---23Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chafee (R-RI)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dayton (D-MN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (D-FL)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Wyden (D-OR)

Interesting that Hillary cited her "years of experience" in calling for the authorizaton of the invasion and occupation.

Pah.

My niece pointed out something else: the government's refusal to learn from history that imperialism (Rome, Britain) eventually implodes under its own weight. Not a smart strategy for a nation that wants to remain strong, vital and relevant.

Later, gators!

-- volney

A PERSPECTIVE FROM "BLACK AGENDA REPORT"

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=562&Itemid=1

Obama has for the past week sought to distance himself from his pastor of twenty years. In speeches and interviews Obama compared Rev. Wright to “that old uncle everybody has” who mumbles things we disagree with. He pronounced Wright hopelessly stuck in the fifties and sixties. Obama's much ballyhooed March 18 speech went several steps further, suggesting that white American racism is a not a fundamental feature of American life, mischaracterizing his pastor's views on the Middle East, and blaming the US imperial adventures there on “radical Islam”.

The fact is that black America is more pro-Palestinian than any other constituency except Arab-Americans, and more suspicious of US claims to be an “honest broker” for peace in the Middle East. Obama's labeling of "radical Islam" as the transcendent national enemy, however, is perfectly in line with that of corporate media, as well as with Hillary's, McCain's and Bush's "war on terror" foreign policy framework. It is exactly the opposite of where most of Black America stands. If Barack believes, as he says, that "the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam" are the reasons we are at war in the Middle East, what difference is there between Obama and Hillary, between Obama and McCain or even between Obama and George Bush or the neo-cons?   If Barack believes this, the promised withdrawal and “over the horizon” redeployment of "combat troops" (not of mercenaries or contractors or counterinsurgency  troops or training troops or the rest of the occupation, just the "combat brigades") will be followed by another intervention somewhere else in hopes of squashing "the perverse and hateful ideology of radical Islam".

Obama has already promised to increase the military budget over Bush levels, to add 90,000 more men and women to the army and marines, and to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan, where we support a coterie of arms and opium smugglers masquerading as a government.

Our "stalwart ally", as Barack called Israel, is in fact a murderous apartheid regime in which Arab "citizens" are forbidden from owning land in most of the country, where their marriages are not recognized by the state, where Arabs are issued different license plates so their cars can be profiled from a distance, and many other indignities.  And those are Arabs with Israeli citizenship.  Palestinians, the owners of the land only two generation ago, are still experiencing wholesale confiscation of their remaining land and assets, penned up into Gaza and the West Bank, humiliated, starved and murdered at will by Israeli armed forces and death squads.  Obama knows these to be facts, and at earlier points in his political career would show up at Palestinian events in Chicago.  But the political game he has chosen to play, and the allies he has chose to play it with require a selective memory.

8:30AM

BLACK AGENDA SUM-UP

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=562&Itemid=1

Obama's unconditional affirmations that America is “inherently good”, that white racism is not endemic, that “radical Islam” is the enemy, that apartheid Israel is a “stalwart ally”, and that his pastor and spiritual mentor, a man who accurately reflects the views of most of Black America is an angry, divisive old uncle stuck in the fifties and sixties --- all these may restore his credentials among whites as the candidate of “racial reconciliation”. But what is being reconciled here? Aside from the color of the president's face, what is being changed? And just what does Black America, its opinions and leading thinkers denounced, belittled and banned from the political discourse by the black candidate, no less, get out of this reconciliation, or this campaign?

8:37AM

holy week in Seville

 See the whole series of eleven

And from Georgia comes this:

SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTION PRESS CONFERENCE -

Thur. Mar. 20 10:00 am South Atrium, Ga. State Capitol

---

Georgia E-Voting: Why we believe it is Illegal and Unconstitutional

On July 13, 2006 a group of Georgia citizens, organized by VoterGa.org, filed suit on behalf of all nine million current and future Georgia voters contending that our current electronic voting method is illegal and unconstitutional according to state law. The charges may seem overstated to an uninformed observer but this overview of the 7 legal counts reveals the unreported detail:

Machine Accuracy – Georgia law requires that electronic voting machines “…record correctly and accurately every vote cast…” at the time they are used. No procedure was ever implemented to ensure that the machines record the votes accurately on election night when they are used.

Recount Ability – State law provides conditions when candidates are entitled to a recount of votes. Georgia E-Voting made recounts impossible because it removed all direct physical evidence of voter intent from our elections. Voter verified ballots were replaced by voter inaccessible electronic records. Only reprints of previous unverifiable results are now possible.

Ballot Requirement – The Georgia Constitution requires all elections to be conducted by ballot. When E-Voting was implemented in 2002, Georgia law was modified to state that elections “shall be conducted by ballot except when voting machines are used…” State law cannot override a Constitutional requirement. Elections must be conducted by ballot, not by electronic record.

People Participation - The Georgia Constitution defines our “method of voting” as “elections by the people”. Currently, the people cannot see the selections on their own ballots, cannot confirm that their ballots were cast and cannot participate in counting the votes to determine election results. All critical functions of “elections by the people” were unconstitutionally removed from the people.

Equal Protection – The Constitution also states: “No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.” Georgia absentee voters cast votes on standard ballots that can be verified, audited and recounted. Georgia Election Day voters do not have those same privileges and are denied equal protection of the laws stated above.

The lawsuit also claims the audit trail pilot project is unconstitutional and illegal as follows:

Ballot Secrecy – The Constitution requires that elections “must be conducted by secret ballot” so that no one can identify candidates that the voter chose. The newer Diebold pilot project machines roll election results sequentially into a sealed canister. This technique can allow a poll worker or observer who accesses the results to determine precisely what candidates each voter selected.

Machine Accuracy – The newer Diebold pilot machines also cannot meet time of use accuracy requirements because they do not produce individually separated ballots that can be quickly counted and audited once the polls close. The new pilot project law even allows for machine results to be audited AFTER the election results are certified.

The basic relief that the lawsuit will seek could have been implemented in 2002 including:

• Statewide external audit trails for all electronic voting machines;
• A public audit of at least one randomly selected race at the precinct on election night;
• An automatic race recount if similar audit count discrepancies are found across precincts.

Instead, citizens like those in VoterGa who have already spent thousands of hours and dollars on this issue now must file suit to restore voting that can be verified, audited and recounted. As you can see, all seven counts of the suit are very strong. We need to win only one of the first five counts to win the case against current E-voting  and just one of the last two counts to win against the pilot project. Georgia needs your immediate help so that we can take appropriate legal action to restore voting that can be verified, audited and recounted. Freedom is not free. Please click the Donation button to contribute or mail your contribution to:

Voter GA    P.O. Box 808   Decatur, Ga. 30031

note to seashell

I claim firsties as I read my way through the browse all postings, and on ones that seeem destined to be front paged I put Howard first.

happened hours before they put it up so it is pretty hard to "go back and inform the old thread" since that one is a future thread at that point too

fred, well over a year ago.....I reminded you that YOU stated you were a Rush-loving Repub until you came upon hard times yourself.

I am paraphrasing but that is a fair representation of your comment.

^That was for clarification and I won't discuss it further nor will I search the blog for your exact words as I know I'm giving an honest and fair representation of your comment.
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and why are you dredging up THAT as a response to my comment that you regularly defend Hamas, Hezbollah and their ilk. You lovingly refer to Hezbollah as "the Hez"....and again, I won't dredge up your many, many posts that in support of/rationalizing/justifying these groups.

BTW, Concerned Citizens Councils is what segregationists called themselves in the sixties.

Yes, we're bringing all the trappings of segregation to Iraq.  Instead of hunting 'coons, insurgents are being hunted and tracked by drones.  You'd think that if they can surveille a person for over twenty-four hours, they could send out the troops to make and arrest.  Goodness, they might even have time to get a warrant. 

rd,

Thank you for posting her speech on authorization to go to war with Iraq.  It sure doesn't look like she was confused about what GWB was going to do (as she claims) to me.  If you have not already you should post the speech on the Obama blog.

Jo, I agree she is a lying b*tch.  I will not vote for her.  Ever.

John, that is an interesting article you posted on black-agenda sum up.  I simply have read too much praise from AA's on the internet, and personally experienced from AA friends that most AA's do not feel that way.  Have you seen the faces of the AA children in the audiences?  They adore him. Sorry if I am going to sound corny, but he has given them hope.  What is wrong with that?  He is trying to change America, you cannot do it overnight, it takes time, and like Obama has said it won't be easy.

A post script -  we are having a nice rain here in SLC - Happy Spring everyone.

last nite at our city committee executive board meeting I was amazed when one of our co chairs said that hillary can't win va. and if nominated they would just work to get mark warner elected.

The Dem party of Va does not think Hillary is viable

Go Barack.

Huron John
Thu, 03/20/08
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Great article......its 9.06am est.........2008..........

Yup......about the only good thing aboiut Obama i can see is that he is not Mccain or Clinton which is probably good in that respect........

Joe and Jane Six Pack, whi inhabit a majority of the key electoral states to win an eelction will not take a chance on hime however and could care less about his sermon of race..........in fact, they had enough of that in the 70s etc..........and there was your birth of the Reagan Democrats.

I for one dont buy Obamas sales pitch on bringing the troops home..........we ARE there, in that region for the rest of this generations lives at least......in some way shape or form........

9:14 AM EST

s m -

I posted there on the Obama '08 blog too (thanks for the echo).

Frankly, I'm getting tired of Hillary's flip/flops on the war in Iraq and on NAFTA:

http://kdka.com/national/hillary.clinton.records.2.681317.html

Mar 20, 2008 8:30 am US/Eastern

WASHINGTON (AP) ―

...

Clinton was an early champion of the North American Free Trade Agreement that she now criticizes. The schedules show her holding at least five meetings in 1993 aimed at helping to win congressional approval of the deal.

She also pushed NAFTA on multiple occasions, including one in November 1993 at a closed meeting with 120 expected participants. As a presidential candidate, she blames the pact for costing jobs and promises to renegotiate it.

...

9:29 Am EST

fyi - new Front thread

Here's an important Rethug seat which Presidential candidate Obama - campaigning in all 50 states - would help a good Democratic candidate win :

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/washington/20cnd-reynolds.html?hp

“I just looked at where we are,” he said at a news conference at a volunteer fire station here. “I had time to reflect on the State Senate seat in the north country and Congressman Hastert’s seat in Illinois.”

The two references were to elections in which Republicans lost to Democrats.

Mr. Reynolds has come under criticism because of financial irregularities at the chief fund-raising arm of his party in the House, the National Republican Congressional Committee. The former treasurer of the committee, Christopher J. Ward, who was named to that post five years ago by Mr. Reynolds when the latter was chairman, is the focus of an F.B.I. investigation.