Global
In a stunning reversal the North Carolina State Board of Elections decided to ignore state law and certify three voting systems for use in the state. Keith Long, an advisor to the Board of Elections who was formerly employed by both Diebold and Sequoia, has said that "none of them" could meet the statutory requirement to place their system code in escrow. Instead of rejecting all applications and issuing a new call for bids as required by law, the Board chose to approve all of the applicants. Long also said that it was not necessary to review the source code, even though state law requires it, because the ITA has already done that before federal qualification.
National: Documentary charges electronic voting flawed (VoterGate)
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=120281
National: States and Localities Prepare for Jan. 1 HAVA and Electronic Voting Deadline (Misinformation from the recent California "summit" )
http://www.public-cio.com/newsStory.php?id=2005.12.02-97448
National: Documentary charges electronic voting flawed (VoterGate)
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=120281
National: States and Localities Prepare for Jan. 1 HAVA and Electronic Voting Deadline (Misinformation from the recent California "summit" )
http://www.public-cio.com/newsStory.php?id=2005.12.02-97448
On Saturday, December 10, in London, England, leaders of the peace movement against the Iraq war from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Iraq will meet to strategize. There is hope that the tide has already turned against the occupation, and that a coordinated international effort will be able to mobilize sufficient public pressure to bring the war to a complete end.
If you can make it to London, sign up here: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
If you can't make it, I think I have an easy second-best course of action for you. One of the speakers at the opening session in London will be Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., and at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. Phyllis has just published a book called "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the U.N. Defy U.S. Power."
You can buy it here: http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksC/challeng_empire.html
If you can make it to London, sign up here: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
If you can't make it, I think I have an easy second-best course of action for you. One of the speakers at the opening session in London will be Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., and at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. Phyllis has just published a book called "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the U.N. Defy U.S. Power."
You can buy it here: http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksC/challeng_empire.html
A small group of very dedicated volunteers in central Ohio work every Thursday morning, 8:30am-12 noon at the Worldwide Humanitarian Aid warehouse to collect, organize and pack up equipment and supplies for people who need help all over the world. You could help by donating your time just once a week, or once a month.
Worldwide Humanitarian Aid has delivered truckloads of goods to El Salvador, Chiapas, New Orleans, Native American reservations, the Ukraine and many other places in the past ten years. They have supported medical clinics, donated ambulances, and provided training for doctors in Third World countries. They have provided computers and school supplies for schoolchildren in central America, and are now collecting money for uniforms for kids in El Salvador so they can attend school. They are planting moringa trees in communities to help them become self-sufficient.
Worldwide Humanitarian Aid has delivered truckloads of goods to El Salvador, Chiapas, New Orleans, Native American reservations, the Ukraine and many other places in the past ten years. They have supported medical clinics, donated ambulances, and provided training for doctors in Third World countries. They have provided computers and school supplies for schoolchildren in central America, and are now collecting money for uniforms for kids in El Salvador so they can attend school. They are planting moringa trees in communities to help them become self-sufficient.
Radically conservative Christians are attempting to shove a “Wedge” down the collective throats of Kansans, but some of us are not opening up and saying “Ahhhh”. As a parent of a sixth grader at a Kansas public school, I assert that the six conservative members of the Kansas State School Board are abysmal failures at ensuring the intellectual growth of our children and have grossly violated a sacred parental right.
In opening the door to introducing “Intelligent Design” into Kansas classrooms, the Kansas Board has advanced the “Wedge Strategy” of the Discovery Institute, which originated “Intelligent Design”. “Intelligent Design” is a “theory” which rests solely on the observation that the complexity of the world “proves” the existence of a Creator.
Per Discovery’s own internal document called The Wedge Strategy:
Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.
In opening the door to introducing “Intelligent Design” into Kansas classrooms, the Kansas Board has advanced the “Wedge Strategy” of the Discovery Institute, which originated “Intelligent Design”. “Intelligent Design” is a “theory” which rests solely on the observation that the complexity of the world “proves” the existence of a Creator.
Per Discovery’s own internal document called The Wedge Strategy:
Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to issue a ruling soon on a key piece of evidence that will help kick-start the long awaited criminal trial involving Houston-based Reliant Energy and the company's alleged scheme to boost its profits by shutting down power plants in California during the height of the state's energy crisis five years ago.
At issue are technical questions federal prosecutors have raised involving the definition of "market manipulation" as stated by California's grid operator, which US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said could not be introduced as evidence by the prosecution.
The criminal trial - the first one related to state's two-year-old energy crisis - was scheduled to begin last month. It was postponed the day jury selection was set to begin, when prosecutors asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Walker's ruling that market rules of the California Independent System Operator could not be used as evidence to establish what constitute normal wholesale power prices.
At issue are technical questions federal prosecutors have raised involving the definition of "market manipulation" as stated by California's grid operator, which US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said could not be introduced as evidence by the prosecution.
The criminal trial - the first one related to state's two-year-old energy crisis - was scheduled to begin last month. It was postponed the day jury selection was set to begin, when prosecutors asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Walker's ruling that market rules of the California Independent System Operator could not be used as evidence to establish what constitute normal wholesale power prices.
"Advice to Retirees: Embrace the future," syndicated columnist Tad Bartimus
recently wrote in my local Seattle paper. Sounds good, but for Bartimus the
future was a layoff, in a corporate cutback, from a 25-year career at the
Associated Press news service. Faced with the Hobson's choice of agreeing to
it or losing all health care access and pension benefits, she suddenly had
to find ways to reinvent herself and survive, with less than half of her
previously promised pension. She explores how her situation echoes the
predicament of more and more Americans, like those who took middle-class
futures for granted at companies such as General Motors, Delta Airlines, and
Ford, but who now scramble to get by at jobs paying a fraction of the wages
they were used to. America's social contract is being ripped apart, she
writes-then she backs off to counsel individual adaptation and seeing life
as "a banquet," where we need to savor even the unexpected courses.
Dolores Huerta was a key advisor to civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. She is co-founder of United Farm Workers of America and is one of the most successful and respected civil rights and labor movement leaders of the 20th and 21st centuries. She will address the Central Ohio community December 8 at an event organized by the Columbus Council on World Affairs (CCWA) and International Institute for Democracy on the topic “Immigration Challenges: A Human Rights Perspective” and later in the evening will talk on “2006 Mexican Presidential Elections and its Impact on the U.S.”
As a top civil rights leader, Dolores Huerta was invited by CCWA to provide a human rights perspective on international immigration issues that directly affect the U.S. Her political expertise will fuel a discussion later in the day to address how the 2006 Mexican Presidential elections will impact U.S.–Mexico relations.
The public is invited to attend the two events and can contact Diana Pagan to RSVP at 614-229-4599, ext. 401. Prices are set up differently for lunch and evening events.
As a top civil rights leader, Dolores Huerta was invited by CCWA to provide a human rights perspective on international immigration issues that directly affect the U.S. Her political expertise will fuel a discussion later in the day to address how the 2006 Mexican Presidential elections will impact U.S.–Mexico relations.
The public is invited to attend the two events and can contact Diana Pagan to RSVP at 614-229-4599, ext. 401. Prices are set up differently for lunch and evening events.
"Our goal . . . is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way."
Dig up an old lie from one of George Bush's forgotten speeches and the stench is asphyxiating, as though it's coming from the rotting corpse of democracy itself. The words quoted above are from the president's inaugural address in January - the odor intensified by recent news that the president allegedly wanted to bomb the headquarters of al-Jazeera, the Arab-language TV station with 50 million viewers, during our first bloody assault on Fallujah a year and a half ago.
If you aren't familiar with this outrageous little glimpse inside the war effort (and if you expose yourself only to mainstream American media, you probably aren't), here's a quick summation of the controversy, which is currently wreaking havoc on freedom of the press in Great Britain:
In April 2004, the president told Prime Minister Tony Blair he was concerned about the reporting that al-Jazeera, known for its graphic, uncensored footage of the Iraq war, was doing from the city then being leveled.
Dig up an old lie from one of George Bush's forgotten speeches and the stench is asphyxiating, as though it's coming from the rotting corpse of democracy itself. The words quoted above are from the president's inaugural address in January - the odor intensified by recent news that the president allegedly wanted to bomb the headquarters of al-Jazeera, the Arab-language TV station with 50 million viewers, during our first bloody assault on Fallujah a year and a half ago.
If you aren't familiar with this outrageous little glimpse inside the war effort (and if you expose yourself only to mainstream American media, you probably aren't), here's a quick summation of the controversy, which is currently wreaking havoc on freedom of the press in Great Britain:
In April 2004, the president told Prime Minister Tony Blair he was concerned about the reporting that al-Jazeera, known for its graphic, uncensored footage of the Iraq war, was doing from the city then being leveled.
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Lord Impersonator is back again. This fella reappears every couple of years and causes no end of trouble. The jokester goes around persuading feeble-minded persons he is the Lord Almighty and that they are to do or say some perfectly idiotic thing under his instructions.
One of the worst cases we've had in Texas was the time the Lord Impersonator convinced 20 people in Floydada to git nekked, get into a GTO and drive to Vinton, La., where they ran into a tree. Seein' 20 nekkid people, including five children, come out of a GTO startled the Vinton cops. The nekkid citizens all said God told them to do it.
Quite a few people have been mishearing the Lord lately. The Rev. Pat Robertson thinks the Lord told the people of Dover, Pa., they shouldn't ask for His help anymore because they elected a school board Robertson doesn't like. And Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana said right after Hurricane Katrina that "we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."
One of the worst cases we've had in Texas was the time the Lord Impersonator convinced 20 people in Floydada to git nekked, get into a GTO and drive to Vinton, La., where they ran into a tree. Seein' 20 nekkid people, including five children, come out of a GTO startled the Vinton cops. The nekkid citizens all said God told them to do it.
Quite a few people have been mishearing the Lord lately. The Rev. Pat Robertson thinks the Lord told the people of Dover, Pa., they shouldn't ask for His help anymore because they elected a school board Robertson doesn't like. And Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana said right after Hurricane Katrina that "we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."