Global
I just read an excellent book from http://www.endthewartour.org called "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military." Personally I was never attracted to the military because I could never stand having anyone tell me what to do – well, and because I had parents who helped me find other options in life.
The military glorifies the giving and obeying of orders as somehow something good for its own sake, something called "discipline" or "character." I can't judge whether I have either of those things, but I do know the last place I would ever have thought to turn for a career was an institution in which I would have had to do what a bunch of mean bastards said to do simply because they said to do it. That wouldn’t have worked. I'd have ended up a conscientious objector even in peace time.
The military glorifies the giving and obeying of orders as somehow something good for its own sake, something called "discipline" or "character." I can't judge whether I have either of those things, but I do know the last place I would ever have thought to turn for a career was an institution in which I would have had to do what a bunch of mean bastards said to do simply because they said to do it. That wouldn’t have worked. I'd have ended up a conscientious objector even in peace time.
The grass roots are just that--roots. The thought is often lost on those at the top of the political food chain. Without roots, the top topples. The grass roots are not impressed with the way that John Kerry conceeded in the face of overwhelming upset at fact and suspicions of foul play, fraud and supression. Some of the 'roots' are disillusioned to the point of jumping ship to Green territory. Some are just not going to choose any alternative. Some secretly wish Al Gore would reconsider and enter.
What the top seldom realizes as they create the campaign blueprints that they expect everyone like sheep to line up and follow, providing the competitive footwork and fund with every agressive email solicitation, is that the grass roots on the last campaign, staked not only their credibility, but took considerable abuse for doing so in backing Kerry. Many of them worked volunteer for many long months at considerable personal sacrifice and negative personal cash flow because they believed it that important to stop the agenda of this Administration.
What the top seldom realizes as they create the campaign blueprints that they expect everyone like sheep to line up and follow, providing the competitive footwork and fund with every agressive email solicitation, is that the grass roots on the last campaign, staked not only their credibility, but took considerable abuse for doing so in backing Kerry. Many of them worked volunteer for many long months at considerable personal sacrifice and negative personal cash flow because they believed it that important to stop the agenda of this Administration.
The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
No Police State!
Carol Fisher is a 54 year old woman who was putting up "Bush Step Down" posters on telephones in Cleveland Heights. For this, she was assaulted by police, charged and convicted of 2 counts of felony assault on police officers. Carol is now in the Cuyohoga County Jail. On June 2, Judge Timothy McGinty sentenced her to 2 months in jail, 2 years probation with community service and mandatory "anger management classes."
This is an outrage! An appeal of her conviction has been filed by her attorneys.
This case has been reported on extensively in the Cleveland Free Times, The Sun Press, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and websites and blogs around the world.
A Fact Sheet on this case, complete coverage and updates available at www.worldcantwait.org
June 2, 2006 Sentencing Day:
No Police State!
Carol Fisher is a 54 year old woman who was putting up "Bush Step Down" posters on telephones in Cleveland Heights. For this, she was assaulted by police, charged and convicted of 2 counts of felony assault on police officers. Carol is now in the Cuyohoga County Jail. On June 2, Judge Timothy McGinty sentenced her to 2 months in jail, 2 years probation with community service and mandatory "anger management classes."
This is an outrage! An appeal of her conviction has been filed by her attorneys.
This case has been reported on extensively in the Cleveland Free Times, The Sun Press, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and websites and blogs around the world.
A Fact Sheet on this case, complete coverage and updates available at www.worldcantwait.org
June 2, 2006 Sentencing Day:
Have you ever heard someone try to argue that the Iraq War was a mistake but that now the proper course is to continue the mistake a bit longer or to carefully end it in a long and complicated way that could take months or years? Have you ever wondered how such a position, if examined in detail, could possibly make any sense?
Wonder no more. Such a position, in various forms, actually makes no sense. In fact, such a position requires a stunning degree of illogic.
There's an important book at http://www.endthewartour.org called "Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal" by Anthony Arnove. The book has a Foreword and an Afterword by Howard Zinn, who in 1967 published "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal." Arnove's book is important because it refutes all the major claims against immediate withdrawal.
Arnove begins with some historical background, and then lays out an overwhelming case for the following points. I'll list them here, but you'll need to read the book (it's only 100 pages) for the arguments:
Wonder no more. Such a position, in various forms, actually makes no sense. In fact, such a position requires a stunning degree of illogic.
There's an important book at http://www.endthewartour.org called "Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal" by Anthony Arnove. The book has a Foreword and an Afterword by Howard Zinn, who in 1967 published "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal." Arnove's book is important because it refutes all the major claims against immediate withdrawal.
Arnove begins with some historical background, and then lays out an overwhelming case for the following points. I'll list them here, but you'll need to read the book (it's only 100 pages) for the arguments:
Dear Editor:
In his June 2, 2006 Salon article “Was the 2004 Election Stolen? No”, Farhad Manjoo claims to have “thoroughly debunked” a June 15, 2006 article in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election”.
As one of the (applied) statisticians cited in Kennedy’s article, I find that Manjoo’s “debunking” is either superficial spin that is easily refuted by adding more detail to Kennedy’s already very long piece, or simply factually erroneous. I will focus on the Manjoo points that relate to official return and exit poll data - my particular area of expertise.
In his June 2, 2006 Salon article “Was the 2004 Election Stolen? No”, Farhad Manjoo claims to have “thoroughly debunked” a June 15, 2006 article in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election”.
As one of the (applied) statisticians cited in Kennedy’s article, I find that Manjoo’s “debunking” is either superficial spin that is easily refuted by adding more detail to Kennedy’s already very long piece, or simply factually erroneous. I will focus on the Manjoo points that relate to official return and exit poll data - my particular area of expertise.
I’ve been thinking about Tariq Aziz a lot since the New York Times
printed a front-page story on the former Iraqi deputy prime minister in
late May. A color photograph showed him decked out in what the article
described as “an open-necked hospital gown, with a patient’s plastic
identification tag on his wrist.” He looked gaunt.
The last time I saw Aziz, at a Baghdad meeting two months before the U.S.-led invasion began, he was still portly in one of his well-tailored business suits. If Aziz was worried, he didn’t show it.
Now, he’s playing a part that U.S. media seem to relish. The Times headline said “Hussein’s Former Envoy Gushes With Adulation on Witness Stand,” but to sum up the coverage it might have just as aptly declared: “How the Mighty Have Fallen.”
The last time I saw Aziz, at a Baghdad meeting two months before the U.S.-led invasion began, he was still portly in one of his well-tailored business suits. If Aziz was worried, he didn’t show it.
Now, he’s playing a part that U.S. media seem to relish. The Times headline said “Hussein’s Former Envoy Gushes With Adulation on Witness Stand,” but to sum up the coverage it might have just as aptly declared: “How the Mighty Have Fallen.”
AUSTIN, Texas -- Thank goodness the Republicans are around to tell me what to worry about. The flag-burning crisis -- here in Austin, there's that pall of smoke rising from the West every morning (it's from an area called Tarrytown, where they burn hundreds of flags daily).
You didn't know hundreds of flags were being burned daily? Actually, you can count on your hand the number of incidents reported over the last five years. For instance, there was one flag burned in 2005 by a drunken teenager and one by a protester in California in 2002. This appalling record of ravishment must be stopped. You're clearly not worried about what matters.
Gay marriage, now there's a crisis. Well, OK, so there isn't much gay marriage going on here in Texas. None, in fact. First, we made it illegal. Then, we made it unconstitutional. But President Bush is all concerned about it, so I guess we have to alter the U.S. Constitution.
Gus and Captain Call (of "Lonesome Dove" fame) will be an item -- with who knows who waiting in line right after them.
You didn't know hundreds of flags were being burned daily? Actually, you can count on your hand the number of incidents reported over the last five years. For instance, there was one flag burned in 2005 by a drunken teenager and one by a protester in California in 2002. This appalling record of ravishment must be stopped. You're clearly not worried about what matters.
Gay marriage, now there's a crisis. Well, OK, so there isn't much gay marriage going on here in Texas. None, in fact. First, we made it illegal. Then, we made it unconstitutional. But President Bush is all concerned about it, so I guess we have to alter the U.S. Constitution.
Gus and Captain Call (of "Lonesome Dove" fame) will be an item -- with who knows who waiting in line right after them.
"It's past time for HIV and AIDS to be relegated to history so that 25
years from now, we can look back at what was and what is no more," said
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
WASHINGTON - Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese made the following statement on the 25th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS:
"In a heartbeat, a generation of Americans was lost to AIDS," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "While the government's reaction was slow, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community united into a political force that demanded action and, with an enduring commitment, secured it. Today is a day to honor the lives lost, to pay tribute to the many who took action, and to recognize the great challenges that still stand before us in fighting the scourge of HIV and AIDS.
WASHINGTON - Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese made the following statement on the 25th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS:
"In a heartbeat, a generation of Americans was lost to AIDS," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "While the government's reaction was slow, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community united into a political force that demanded action and, with an enduring commitment, secured it. Today is a day to honor the lives lost, to pay tribute to the many who took action, and to recognize the great challenges that still stand before us in fighting the scourge of HIV and AIDS.
Editor's note: The Free Press is releasing these articles by Ron Baiman that generally support the analysis by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the current issue of Rolling Stone. Also see Richard Hayes Phillips' Through a Glass Darkely.
Connally Spreadsheet (Excel Spreadsheet)
Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: The History, The Crime, The Cover-Up, and Conclusions (Adobe PDF)
Analysis of Connally Spreadsheet
1) Of only 14 out of 88 counties where Bush did abnormally well relative to Moyer (better than a 1.43 Bush/Moyer ratio - Column E) 9 of them (M) just happen to be the same counties where Kerry did implausibly poorly relative to Connally (R).
Connally Spreadsheet (Excel Spreadsheet)
Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: The History, The Crime, The Cover-Up, and Conclusions (Adobe PDF)
Analysis of Connally Spreadsheet
1) Of only 14 out of 88 counties where Bush did abnormally well relative to Moyer (better than a 1.43 Bush/Moyer ratio - Column E) 9 of them (M) just happen to be the same counties where Kerry did implausibly poorly relative to Connally (R).
At Last!!!!
The story of the stolen election of 2004 has FINALLY busted into the mainstream media, thanks to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Rolling Stone Magazine.
We all owe them great thanks.
Now we'll see if there's any further media follow-up. And if the Democratic Party actually DOES SOMETHING about the fact that America is about to be hijacked again in 2006, and then for the third straight presidential race in 2008.
The massive article in this week's RS focuses on the impossible contrast between exit polls showing a clear and overwhelming Kerry victory versus bogus "official" vote counts giving George W. Bush four more catastrophic years in the White House. It also details some of the horrific intimidation, manipulation and outright theft used by Ohio's GOP Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to deny hundreds of thousands of mostly Democratic voters their right to a ballot. And it discusses in some depth the fact that Diebold and other electronic voting machine and software producers make it possible for any inside operator to use a laptop and a few keystrokes to flip an entire election in a matter of seconds.
The story of the stolen election of 2004 has FINALLY busted into the mainstream media, thanks to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Rolling Stone Magazine.
We all owe them great thanks.
Now we'll see if there's any further media follow-up. And if the Democratic Party actually DOES SOMETHING about the fact that America is about to be hijacked again in 2006, and then for the third straight presidential race in 2008.
The massive article in this week's RS focuses on the impossible contrast between exit polls showing a clear and overwhelming Kerry victory versus bogus "official" vote counts giving George W. Bush four more catastrophic years in the White House. It also details some of the horrific intimidation, manipulation and outright theft used by Ohio's GOP Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to deny hundreds of thousands of mostly Democratic voters their right to a ballot. And it discusses in some depth the fact that Diebold and other electronic voting machine and software producers make it possible for any inside operator to use a laptop and a few keystrokes to flip an entire election in a matter of seconds.