What to worry about

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.

Twenty-fifth anniversary of first reported case of AIDS a time to recommit to the fight

"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.

Solmonese continued, "While we've come a long way, HIV/AIDS continues to devastate communities around the world and in the United States, particularly among men who have sex with men and communities of color. We must demand that more resources are devoted to this fight. The

Analysis of Connally spreadsheet and other documents

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).

RFK and Rolling Stone nail Ohio's stolen 2004 election, but much more must be done

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.

Last Call

Setting:  a bar. 

Time:  midnight

Characters:

BROOKS and SANDY:  two people.  Age, gender, ethnicity to be determined by production group.

BROOKS and SANDY sit at bar, large, full glasses of beer in front of them.

BROOKS:  You ever think it’d be like this?  A glass of beer at midnight?

SANDY:  Nope.

BROOKS:  I mean, I always thought there’d be, I don’t know, a bit more anticipation, a bit more preparation, you know?

SANDY:  Yeah.

BROOKS:  Something big, something spectacular—like all those movies with what’s-his-name and sand and stuff.

SANDY:  Who?

BROOKS:  You know, the actor.  Big guy.  Did lots of movies in the 50s and 60s.  Based on Bible stories.  Then became a gun nut.  NRA and all that.  Cold dead hands.

SANDY:  Cold dead hands???

BROOKS:  The bumper sticker.  Don’t you remember?  “The only way you’ll register my guns is to pry them out of my cold, dead hands?” 

SANDY:  Oh.  Yeah.

BROOKS:  So who was the actor?  The one who became a gun nut?

SANDY:  Reagan?

Flying The ‘Red Flag’ Memorial Weekend

Revolutionary Greetings!

On Sunday, May 21st, ‘Joe’ a WWII veteran was standing at a regular vigil at 15th and High Street on the Ohio State University Campus in Columbus, Ohio. Joe also attends a Saturday vigil that I attend. Joe’s sign says,”Jail Bush.” Joe told me he was walking up the sidewalk arguing about the war in Iraq with an ROTC student in uniform.Hewas attacked from behind by a male in civilian clothes who is thought to be a friend of one of the ROTC Gestapo and is reported to be an OSU Pre-Med student. A witness to this cowardly act told me that the male ran up behind Joe and jumped into the air to hit Joe around the shoulders which knocked him to the ground. The attacker continued to run but was arrested. Although Joe sustained both a injuredwrist and rib in the assault, he was at the Saturday vigil the following week.

Uproar downwind

That "perfectly safe" mushroom cloud that was supposed to rise 10,000 feet over the Nevada Test Site this month will have to remain a mere gleam in Donald Rumsfeld's eye for the time being.

The security state, which had planned to jump-start its WMD program with a supposedly conventional explosion large enough to mimic the effects of a small nuclear weapon, has run smack into the ghosts of its own fraudulent past. The citizens downwind of the test site, the furious sons and daughters of the victims of earlier testing and earlier lies, have forced the government to regroup.

A serious legal challenge in U.S. District Court and general outrage among the locals - the largely conservative residents of Nevada, Utah, Idaho - have complicated the plans of the Departments of Energy and Defense to set off a major above-ground explosion at the site, the first since 1962, without public input or even a legitimate environmental impact statement. The big bang known as Divine Strake, a 700-ton concoction of ammonium nitrate, fuel oil and God knows what else, is on indefinite hold.

Judge McGinty threatens to send Carol Fisher to jail on June 2

Carol Fisher, an activist with "The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime," will be sentenced this Friday, June 2 at 10 am in the courtroom of Judge Timothy McGinty, on the 21st floor of the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland.

Ms. Fisher was convicted on April 28 of 2 counts of assaulting police officers in Cleveland Heights for putting up posters which read "Bush Step Down."  This case been covered in the Cleveland Free Times, Sun Press, the Plain Dealer, along with radio shows and blogs all over the country.  For background on the case, go to:

http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1635&Itemid=61

She is facing a maximum of three years in jail with a fine of several thousand dollars.  After the guilty verdict, Judge McGinty told her, "When you come to the sentencing, be prepared to apologize and admit you were wrong, or bring your toothbrush - you are going to jail."  Judge McGinty repeated these threats to her attorneys yesterday.

Time for real action on oil dependence

High gasoline prices have jump-started a long overdue national conversation on the consequences of U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Since gas prices crossed the magic $3-a-gallon threshold a few weeks ago, we've seen a rush of proposals on Capitol Hill and in the state capitals seeking to provide relief to an angry electorate. Conspicuously absent from most of the schemes being put forward is any serious plan to address the underlying problem; increasing fuel consumption.

Most Americans realize that quick fixes are not going to solve the real problem that is driving our energy woes: what President Bush called "our national addiction to oil." Politicians have been tripping over each other to lay blame for the rise in gas prices on the weather, environmentalists, OPEC, or the oil companies. But, when it comes to real solutions, they've been oddly silent.

In the next few weeks, the President and members of Congress will have the chance to show whether they are serious about solving America's energy problems. A debate and vote is scheduled on the one proven measure that can

Bush bows to extremist pressure and schedules press conference on marriage amendment

"It's a national disgrace that President Bush has yet again bowed to the far-right extremists," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese

WASHINGTON - In a column for the conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, Executive Editor Fred Barnes broke the news that President Bush has decided to bow to the weeks of demands from the right-wing extremist groups and hold a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House to reiterate his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. According to Barnes, the Rose Garden press conference is scheduled for Monday, June 5, a day before the Senate is expected to vote down the Constitutional amendment.

"It's a national disgrace that President Bush has yet again bowed to the far-right extremists. Instead of addressing the real challenges facing American families -- from record high gas prices, bankrupting health care costs and an endless and costly war in Iraq -- the President will further divide this country and put the far-right extremist's interests ahead of the American people's well-being," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

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