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Turkey is Not a Role Model for the Middle East

In recent weeks President Bush has given several speeches promoting Turkey as the type of democracy that Iraq and Afghanistan should strive to emulate. Mr. Bush even went so far as to state, “Turkey’s democracy is an important example for the people in the broader Middle East.” Turkey is far less repressive than many other Muslim countries. But it is a nation with such serious problems that it should not serve as a role model, even for fledgling Islamic democracies.

Torture and mistreatment are commonplace in Turkey. In 2004, citizens from all parts of the country reported that local police departments beat them while in custody. Many others reported incidents of electric shock, sexual assault, attempted drowning, and partial hanging. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture issued a report after visiting Turkey documenting, “consistent reports of electric shock…and medical evidence consistent with beatings.” The report noted that in southeastern Turkey the majority of citizens detained by the police are denied access to legal representation.

Mourn on the Fourth of July

Am I the only U.S. citizen who finds the annual Fourth rituals to be cloying and deceptive? Yeah -- just me and probably tens of millions of other people.

Ever since the Vietnam War, the Fourth of July has seemed to be a celebration of the past in the midst of a distinctly un-glorious present. In 2005, as in 1965, lyrical appreciation of “bombs bursting in air” is chilling in the context of current realities.

Overall, my outlook on the yearly Independence Day spectacle remains what it was a decade ago:

Patriotic holidays come and go, but one theme is fairly constant in our country’s mass media: The founding fathers were a sterling bunch of guys.

Their press notices are usually raves when the Fourth of July rolls around -- superficial accolades for leaders of the struggle for independence.

It’s true that the famed men of the American Revolution were brave, eloquent and visionary as they challenged the British despot, King George III. But present-day news media usually avoid acknowledging an uncomfortable fact: Many of those heroes didn’t seem to mind very much

Congratulations! House Bill 3 has been tabled!

Thanks to your calls, letters and emails, the Ohio legislature has tabled HB 3 the mean-spirited election "reform" bill!

Buy your gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.

And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

I'm SO proud to call her my Senator

Just have to share. I'm so happy to have people like Senators Feinstein and Boxer representing me and all Californians. They are both (perhaps Boxer even more so than Feinstein) willing to stand up against popular opinion, bringing to light such controversial issues as we see in Senator Feinstein's address to the Senate regarding prison standards for "enemy combatants" and others held in the name of the "war on terror" (which I hear both in the media and from "president" Bush more frequently than the "war on terrorISM" as quoted by Senator Feinstein). Take a moment and read her statements. It gives me a small glimmer of hope.

-Paul

Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein on Detention of Enemy Combatants at Guantanamo Bay
June 15, 2005

Washington, DC - At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today said that she is concerned that America's policy on the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is failing. The following is the text of her statement:

"I want to begin by thanking Chairman Specter and

The Supreme Court's jackboot liberals

So much for the right to die in your own home, smoking a joint to take your mind off the pain. Thanks to the liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court, the feds can haul you to prison from your death bed for smoking medical marijuana, and any local authority can raze your house and give the land to Walmart for a parking lot.

On June 6, by a vote of 6-3, the Court ruled that federal authorities may prosecute sick people who smoke pot on doctors' orders. The court's apex liberal, John Paul Stevens, wrote the majority decision. The conservative Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the dissent, saying that the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use."

Voting problems and uncounted votes in Lucas County, Ohio

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

With a limp election theft report, Dems prove why they're unworthy

In an astonishingly limp report on the stolen 2004 election, the Democratic Party has once again proven why it is unworthy to lead this country and incapable of mounting significant resistance to the far-right GOP juggernaut.

The Democrats much-vaunted "investigation" entitled “Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio” could well have been conducted by a high school class in elementary polling. It consists almost entirely of post-election phone interviews. It says nothing about the devastating discrepancies between exit polls and the highly improbable and virtually impossible vote total that gave George W. Bush a second term. It makes no case about precinct-by-precinct illegalities including unguarded ballots, election machine tampering, an unexplained bogus Homeland Security alert, the firing of whistle-blowing election board officials, and much more.

This July 4, let's enshrine the Ten Amendments, not the Ten Commandments, as America's true Patriot Act

The Supreme Court's mixed rulings on displaying the Ten Commandments on public buildings and property offer us the perfect patriotic step forward for this coming July 4: let's post the first Ten Amendments, i.e. the Bill of Rights, instead.

As we approach our nation's birthday, its core values are under attack. Religious fanatics, who are profoundly unAmerican, are trying to impose their particular theology on us all.

A cult of Christian Ayatollahs and their jihad GOP are using the Ten Commandments as a wedge to force mandatory, tax-sponsored religion into every corner of American life (not to mention the rest of the world).

But it is the Bill of Rights, not the Ten Commandments, that embodies the true core of our national existence.

First and foremost, these amendments guarantee separation of church and state. Remembering the witch trials of the 1690s, a ban on theocracy was very first freedom this nation's founders enshrined.

The liberal straw man

AUSTIN, Texas -- The first thing I ever learned about politics was never to let anyone else define what you believe, or what you are for or against. I think for myself.

I am not "you liberals" or "you people on the left who always ..." My name is Molly Ivins, and I can speak for myself, thank you. I don't need Rush Limbaugh or Karl Rove to tell me what I believe.

Setting up a straw man, calling it liberal and then knocking it down has become a favorite form of "argument" for those on the right. Make some ridiculous claim about what "liberals" think, and then demonstrate how silly it is. Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and many other right-wing ravers never seem to get tired of this old game. If I had a nickel for every idiotic thing I've ever heard those on the right claim "liberals" believe, I'd be richer than Bill Gates.

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