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Beacon Fellowship Columbus has learned that the Simon Kenton Council of the Boy Scouts of America signed a required non-discrimination statement with the United Way of Central Ohio (UWCO) in order to receive funding from the agency. But the Council also sent a "clarification" letter saying that the organization "will not unlawfully discriminate against anyone". The BSA maintains that it has the right to select its own volunteers based upon its own policies.

Some BSA Councils will say they won't discriminate out of one side of their mouth in order to secure funding, get reduced city owned/taxpayer building space, use of public schools and government lands." says Scott Cozza, President of Scouting for All, a national organization working to end the polices of bigotry and discrimination from the BSA. "There is absolutely NO BSA Council that has defied the BSA's national policy of discrimination. That means that no gay or atheist child or adult can feel safe as a member of the BSA, nor can they join this youth outdoor program" Cozza says.

On November 3, just hours after Democratic vice-presidential hopeful John Edwards made a national announcement that he and John Kerry were not going to concede until all the votes were counted, Kerry grabbed the spotlight and conceded -- before all the votes were counted.

Kerry took the money and ran. Seems he couldn't stick around because he and the missus were spending Christmas at a holiday extravaganza in Sun Valley as personal guests of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who just weeks before had fired up the Republican Convention at Madison Square Garden by declaring that "America is safer with George W. Bush as president."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The former candidate, largely AWOL post-election, was seen in intense conversation with Dennis Miller."

It would be another two months before Kerry got around to emailing his millions of stunned, exhausted, and much poorer supporters to let them know that, although he was committed to "ensuring that every vote in this election is counted," alas, he wouldn't be joining the protest of the Ohio Electors.

Actually, there is a crisis in Social Security, though it is not what Bush portrays. For a very long time the government has taken the "surplus" -- that is, the Social Security revenues left over after all currently entitled recipients are paid their benefits -- and used it to defray current operating expenses instead of leaving it in the trust fund to cover the benefits of future retirees. They replace the pilfered funds with specially printed I.O.U.'s from the United States Treasury, and count this money as revenue on the balance sheet in order to make the budget deficit look smaller. At least since 1982 this practice has been not only legal, but mandated by law.

In December, the Supreme Court opted not to hear the civil suit Clair Callan Vs. President George W. Bush. The plaintiff in the suit is a senior citizen and former Congressman from Nebraska. The case has slowly made its way through the lower courts, which have rejected it on the grounds that they have no jurisdiction to hear the suit, or that Mr. Callan does not have a lawful cause of action. The suit alleges that the president violated American law by invading Iraq. Specifically at issue is compliance with the War Powers Act.

“As we here at home contemplate our own duties, our own responsibilities, let us think and think hard of the example which is being set for us by our fighting men. Our soldiers and sailors are members of well-disciplined units. But they're still and forever individuals, free individuals. They are farmers and workers, businessmen, professional men, artists, clerks. They are the United States of America. That is why they fight. We too are the United States of America. That is why we must work and sacrifice. It is for them. It is for us. It is for victory.”
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, “A Call for Sacrifice”, April 28th, 1942

It is very rare to find a talk show host or writer writing a column basically urging readers to read the writings or opinions of other talk show hosts or writers. I am urging readers of this commentary to read the full text of “Is Wal-Mart a Person? Thom Hartmann Tells Why It Is--Kind of--But Not Really: A Buzzflash.com Interview”(http://www.buzzflash.com/
interviews/05/01/int05004.html).

I am posting a few passages for this long interview to give readers a brief taste of this excellent examination of the threat posed by dominant Corporate political, legal and economic power in the United States today. This interview gives the readers an excellent insight into the historical evolution of this extremely serious problem.

“……the Constitution by the addition of the Bill of Rights, which gave humans a huge club they could use to beat back government if it ever were to become oppressive.

Bush gained a small measure of respect worldwide when he did not delay the Iraq elections. I have to admit that I was surprised that he pushed the Iraqis to keep the election date. Why is he not pushing peace in the same way for the Isrealis and Palestinians?

We will see if Bush and the US oil companies are as willing to pull out and leave the oil profits to the Iraqis.....

Overall, the US is paying for installing Saddam as a dictator with the help of the CIA, after also arranging for the assassination of a democratically elected leader there. It is very expensive to undo the installation of a dictator, in terms of both blood and money.

Hopefully the US will now establish a non violent foreign policy of promoting democracy through  education and attraction, (with such things as the Peace Corp) and get away from the previous policy of assassinating democratic leaders and then installing dictators "friendly" to the US corporate interests through a foreign policy of exporting violence. 

After the November presidential election, as informal accounts of massive voting irregularities began to surface, Columbus citizens organized public hearings to document and investigate the reports. Some national organizations had huge amounts of documentation that were to be used for future litigation and public policy changes to effect changes for future election cycles, but not to respond to this one. Organizers felt there needed to be an immediate public conversation about our local and statewide election administration with democratic access to the evidence of voting irregularities; a place for ordinary people- not just lawyers- to respond to the situation. Over 750 Ohioans attended the hearings where sworn testimony was gathered from voters, poll watchers, election experts, and investigative journalists.

Although the Franklin County recount went relatively smoothly on the surface, it was hardly the meaningful audit it was meant to be. The statewide recount didn't change the results of the election in any drastic way, because the process ensured that it wouldn't. A look at the Franklin County recount shows some reasons why, although the recount procedure varied from county to county.

Direct Recording Equipment Issues

In Ohio counties that used DRE (Electronic) voting machines lacking a voter-verifiable paper trail, local Boards of Elections were allowed to decide what it meant to them to conduct a recount. There is no up-to-date Ohio state law to regulate the DRE recount process. In Franklin County, the Cobb campaign submitted a list of requests, asking that representatives of candidates have the opportunity to examine:

-Internal audit trails, printouts, and vote logs from each voting machine used 11/2, and from the central tabulator.

AUSTIN, Texas -- A substantial nit to pick with President Bush's second Inaugural Address and some questions about his theme.

"From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave."

Oh dear. It took us almost 100 years to get rid of slavery right here in the Land of the Free, it took us another 100 years to get rid of legal discrimination based on race and gender, and how long it will take us to achieve equal opportunity for all in this country no one can say. At least we're working at it. Or we were.

The Bush theme of what someone else christened "evangelical democracy" is rather like the "From the day of our founding ..." passage -- actually, it's more complicated than that. I, too, am happy to proselytize for freedom and democracy, but I don't think we can export it by force and I don't think we can expect the world to accept our noble intentions.