Global
Just wanted to say I was really impressed with the
Farm Aid article by Harvey Wasserman. It really
rang true to me at each turn and I was also at almost
everything he explained.
If you'd like some pictures to go along with the article I've got some posted at:
www.funtigo.com/kelvs
Check under "Farm Aid 2003 Keeper."
If you'd like some pictures to go along with the article I've got some posted at:
www.funtigo.com/kelvs
Check under "Farm Aid 2003 Keeper."
Democrats in Congress have abandoned their efforts to investigate the White House's use of questionable intelligence information about Iraq's alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, saying the issue has been "eclipsed" by President Bush's request for $87 billion from Congress to continue funding the war there.
David Helfert, a spokesman for Congressman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, who criticized the White House for relying too heavily on murky intelligence to get support for the war, said Friday that Congressional Democrats would no longer pursue hearings on the intelligence matter.
"We're past that," Helfert said, referring to the intelligence issue. "Those questions were eclipsed by the supplemental request by President Bush for $87 billion" to fund the Iraq war. "Congress if focusing on asking questions about the $87 billion, what it will be used for and whether it's worth it. It would be a good characterization to say that the intelligence questions on Iraq and how the President came to believe that it had weapons of mass destruction are no longer an issue."
David Helfert, a spokesman for Congressman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, who criticized the White House for relying too heavily on murky intelligence to get support for the war, said Friday that Congressional Democrats would no longer pursue hearings on the intelligence matter.
"We're past that," Helfert said, referring to the intelligence issue. "Those questions were eclipsed by the supplemental request by President Bush for $87 billion" to fund the Iraq war. "Congress if focusing on asking questions about the $87 billion, what it will be used for and whether it's worth it. It would be a good characterization to say that the intelligence questions on Iraq and how the President came to believe that it had weapons of mass destruction are no longer an issue."
On September 10, opening day of the Fifth Ministerial of the World Trade
Organization, Lee Kyung Hae, leader of the Korean Federation of Advanced
Farmers Association, climbed the fence that separates the excluded from the
included and took his life with a knife to the heart.
"I am 56 years old, a farmer from South Korea who has strived to solve our problems with the great hope in the ways to organize farmers' unions," Lee read from a statement minutes before his death. "But I have mostly failed, as many other farm leaders elsewhere have failed."
"I am 56 years old, a farmer from South Korea who has strived to solve our problems with the great hope in the ways to organize farmers' unions," Lee read from a statement minutes before his death. "But I have mostly failed, as many other farm leaders elsewhere have failed."
Senate debate on the 2004 foreign aid bill could take
place within the next week. Included in the bill is $500 million in
aid - largely military and police aid - to Colombia. However, the
Senate appears set to approve the Colombia aid portion of the bill
with no debate. More than $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars has gone
to Colombia in the last three years, and there is no indication that
the broad and vague goals of Plan Colombia have been met. Drugs are
just as available on U.S. streets. Nineteen civilians are killed
each day in the crossfire of violence between the paramilitaries,
guerilla groups and the Colombian armed forces, up from 12 per day
three years ago. The fumigation policy aimed at destroying the coca
fields has displaced farmers and left them with no economic
alternative, while simply moving coca production to other countries
in the region.
Action: Contact your senators and ask them why they are not talking about Colombia policy. Express your concerns about the policy of continued military funding for Colombia.
Action: Contact your senators and ask them why they are not talking about Colombia policy. Express your concerns about the policy of continued military funding for Colombia.
Bob - I just read your article on voting technology and the CIA www.counterpunch.org/fitrakis09082003.html. I've been covering this issue for the past year. Here is an excerpt of a speech I gave this past Sunday at a forum I hosted in Philadelphia.
"The boards of many of these companies are dominated by top donors to the Republican Party, former high ranking military officers, and several ex-CIA directors. The CIA directors include: James Woolsey, Bobby Ray Inman, and John Deutch, and as mentioned before, Robert Gates and Frank Carlucci. The CIA, it should be remembered, has a decades-long track record of assisting in the brutal overthrow of democratically elected governments around the world."
I've collected a lot of stuff and put it on my webpage www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm. Help yourself.
Again, good work.
"The boards of many of these companies are dominated by top donors to the Republican Party, former high ranking military officers, and several ex-CIA directors. The CIA directors include: James Woolsey, Bobby Ray Inman, and John Deutch, and as mentioned before, Robert Gates and Frank Carlucci. The CIA, it should be remembered, has a decades-long track record of assisting in the brutal overthrow of democratically elected governments around the world."
I've collected a lot of stuff and put it on my webpage www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm. Help yourself.
Again, good work.
Without a hint of intended irony, the “NewsHour” on PBS concluded
its Sept. 9 program with a warm interview of Henry Kissinger and then a
segment about a renowned propagandist for the Nazi war machine.
Kissinger talked about his latest book. Then a professor of German
history talked about Leni Riefenstahl, the path-breaking documentary
filmmaker who just died at age 101.
The conversation was cozy with Kissinger, the man who served as the preeminent architect of U.S. policy during the last half-dozen years of the Vietnam War. Tossed his way by host Jim Lehrer, the questions ranged from softball to beach ball. And when the obsequious session ended, Lehrer went beyond politeness: “Dr. Kissinger, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Good luck on your book.”
The conversation was cozy with Kissinger, the man who served as the preeminent architect of U.S. policy during the last half-dozen years of the Vietnam War. Tossed his way by host Jim Lehrer, the questions ranged from softball to beach ball. And when the obsequious session ended, Lehrer went beyond politeness: “Dr. Kissinger, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Good luck on your book.”
Shocked and awed, I was today, as I read the news of Americas way.
I wasn't reading the traditional sources, this info was from new discourses.
I read about the U.S.A., thier actions are different than what they say.
With forked tongues they speak, about the sanctity of life.
Careful my friend, behind thier back is a knife.
The richest of the world are controlling thier hand.
Life isn't important, what we want is your land.
But only if oil, or diamonds, or riches, are found
underneath, they'll come dig thier ditches.
They'll come with thier bombs, thier guns, and thier planes.
They'll blow up, they'll shoot down, they'll kill, and they'll maim.
They'll say its for justice, for honor, for right.
God gave them this mission, God gave them thier might.
Thier news outlets glitter with glee, at this show.
They use catchy phrases and righteous slogans, you know.
They weave all thier lies, they distort the truth.
They don't show the horror, the slaughter of youth.
How many civilians did we kill today?
Ah who cares, they should'nt have been in the way.
Walden O'Dell wrote a letter the other day. He wrote a fund-raising letter to Ohio Republicans. And, in that letter O'Dell said that he was, "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to (President Bush) next year."
Walden O'Dell is the Chairman of the Board of Diebold Election Systems, the second largest company in America whose business it is - to count your vote.
Walden O'Dell is the Chairman of the Board of Diebold Election Systems, the second largest company in America whose business it is - to count your vote.
Before the age of computers, there were all kinds of ways for a local politico to "mess" with the voting apparatus. He could arrange for a mechanical machine to count wrong. Or, the names of people in cemeteries could be kept or put on the voter rolls.
But now, in the wondrous age of computers and the internet, it's possible, with a virtually undetectable line of software code that can make itself disappear after its done its dirty work, to wreak corruption on hundreds or thousands of computerized voting machines reflecting hundreds of thousands or millions of votes. A number of recent elections are suspected of being tainted by this voting corruption. We've opened a Pandora's box with computerized voting, not knowing what was going to come out.
But it looks like the Republicans like the way things are, in spite of clear proof of a multitude of errors and easily corruptible vote counting. US Congressman Russ Holt introduced a bill earlier in the year that would take many of the risks out of computerized voting, and it would add safeguards to prevent theft of elections or computerized tampering with the voting process.
But now, in the wondrous age of computers and the internet, it's possible, with a virtually undetectable line of software code that can make itself disappear after its done its dirty work, to wreak corruption on hundreds or thousands of computerized voting machines reflecting hundreds of thousands or millions of votes. A number of recent elections are suspected of being tainted by this voting corruption. We've opened a Pandora's box with computerized voting, not knowing what was going to come out.
But it looks like the Republicans like the way things are, in spite of clear proof of a multitude of errors and easily corruptible vote counting. US Congressman Russ Holt introduced a bill earlier in the year that would take many of the risks out of computerized voting, and it would add safeguards to prevent theft of elections or computerized tampering with the voting process.
"To address the global economic crisis and to foster broad development, the
WTO should be overhauled and reoriented. That was the message coming out of
the Seattle WTO meetings in 1999, and it remains the message four years
later." - Tom Barry, IRC program director.
While multilateral trade rules are necessary to assure predictability, resolve disputes and eliminate technical barriers, free trade is an ideology whose merits have not been proven in practice. The NAFTA experience and that of developing countries in Asia and throughout the Americas have demonstrated that for much of the poor population, trade and investment liberalization do not lead to fulfillment of development goals. These policies have led to serious environmental, economic and social problems in developing countries, and among workers and small farmers in developed countries, while the big winners have been the transnational corporations. Many of the WTOs rules and functions should be reviewed and revised, to reflect the overall goal of development and poverty alleviation rather than trade liberalization as a goal in itself.
While multilateral trade rules are necessary to assure predictability, resolve disputes and eliminate technical barriers, free trade is an ideology whose merits have not been proven in practice. The NAFTA experience and that of developing countries in Asia and throughout the Americas have demonstrated that for much of the poor population, trade and investment liberalization do not lead to fulfillment of development goals. These policies have led to serious environmental, economic and social problems in developing countries, and among workers and small farmers in developed countries, while the big winners have been the transnational corporations. Many of the WTOs rules and functions should be reviewed and revised, to reflect the overall goal of development and poverty alleviation rather than trade liberalization as a goal in itself.