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Favoritism in the suburbs

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: The following study is intended as a companion to STEALING VOTES IN COLUMBUS, and should be read in that context.

The Free Press on Election Day posted a disturbing story, later confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch. The Free Press reported that Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder deliberately withheld voting machines from predominantly black Democratic wards in Columbus, and dispersed some of the machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.

Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party. Sources close to the Board of Elections told the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President George W. Bush in Columbus on Election Day.

The idea was to discourage turnout in Democratic wards by forcing voters to wait in long lines at the polling places, while creating no such inconveniences to voters in predominantly Republican suburbs. This was important because Bush s margin of victory in the

Christmas shopping no bargain if we exploit others

Everybody loves a bargain, especially during the holiday shopping season.

In fact, that seems to be part of the fun of Christmas: finding that perfect gift for Uncle Fred on sale, or picking something up for little Timmy at half off. Many of us have a lot of folks to buy for, after all, and a limited budget, so paying full price is out of the question.

But for every buck or two we save while trolling the aisles of our local shopping mall or giant retail store, somebody somewhere else is probably picking up the tab. Shopping in the United States, long considered a national pastime, comes with its own hidden costs, especially when we start talking about the mega-retailers like Wal-Mart, Target or Sears.

And just because many of these costs are hidden from the average consumer doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Take wages, for example. One of the key ways to sell a product cheap is to keep costs down, and for most big retailers, that means paying their employees the very least they can.

State's sordid role in Lucasville riot, prosecution finally bared

Staughton Lynd's Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising, is a compelling book. So compelling, in fact, that it left me wanting to read more.

Lynd and his wife, Alice, have spent several years reviewing the massive official record of the events involving the deadly 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility and the state's vengeful pursuit of five inmates who helped bring the uprising to a peaceful conclusion. To show its thanks for their efforts, the state tried and condemned them to death for the murders of a correctional officer and some of the nine inmates killed during the uprising.

But Lynd shows convincingly how state officials were as much to blame for the riot and 10 deaths as any of the "Lucasville Five." Lynd bares the arrogance and outright stupidity of official decisions and statements in greater depth than Ohio's news media -- which fanned the flames of revenge with their irresponsible and inaccurate coverage of the event -- ever have.  

US tells Ukraine to recount votes on fradulent election!

Colin Powell (November 24, 2004), US Secretary o State tells the Ukraine to recount their resent election!! (Associated Press Published November 24, 2004) This is no joke. It seems that Powell was sent the Ukraone by our Commender and Thief to insist that the Nation recount the votes in their election because of suspected FRAUD.

It is a tragedy that Kerry has stood the role of a great leader, who would save our Democratic Republic from the grips of a corrupt and criminal machine, only to run away when things get really tuff. Kerry could have been a Gandhi, or Dr. King, or FDR, but he seem to have been playing an "ego game"? to get the glow of greatness without the substance to do the bidding of that position.

Election officials gave wrong information about provisional ballots - revealed in affidavit.

The following is the affidavit by:
Neil F. Schoenwetter, Jr., Summit County, Ohio:

As a "challenger" for the Democratic party, I was at a polling place that contained six precincts. I was there from 630 a.m. to 6: 30 p.m. At at least four of the six precincts, elections judges were telling potential voters that they could cast a provisional ballot at any table/precinct and it would be counted.

Ohio 'auditing' now

Hi friends,

i was reading this article http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1124-03.htm and i came across an interesting statement from blackwell's spokesman.

"We wouldn't think there would be that much of a difference in a recount, " said Carl LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, noting that county boards of election were currently auditing their results. "The boards are conducting what for all intents and purposes is a recount right now. "

they're auditing right now?.. before the recount. doesn't this sound like an opportunity for the repub elections officials like damschroder to fix their voting receipts, forge some signatures and voila, ohio was accurate after all. hope you can use this.

peace now
ben frank

Stealing Votes in Ohio

Dear Editor,  

While I am certain that Republican election officials did everything they could do to prevent Democrats from voting, as far as I know they didn’t stop people from reading their election materials at home and marking their sample ballots before they went to the polling place.  There is no good reason why a voter should wait until he’s standing in the booth to read ballot measures, especially “one of the most complex and controversial amendments ever offered to the Ohio Constitution.”

 Democratically yours,
  Paul Willson
Sherman Oaks, CA

U.S. tells Ukraine to recount votes of fradulent election!!!

Colin Powell (November 24, 2004), US Secretary of State tells the Ukraine to recount their recent election!! (Associated Press Published November 24, 2004) This is no joke. It seems that Powell was sent the Ukraine by our Commander and Thief to insist that the Nation recount the votes in their election because of suspected FRAUD.

Is this familiar? Here in the US we have just seen a flagrant committing of FRAUD in our Presidential Election 2004 and our unselected officials, Bush and company, are doing everything they can to stop any recounting of votes. The only thing really different between US and the Ukraine is that they are taking a more violent action by not allowing the criminal winners to peacefully sit down and start mis-running the peoples government.

Website: http://franklyspeaking.info

A few political developments

AUSTIN, Texas -- As we take this long weekend to digest our Thanksgiving dinners and the ensuing leftovers, let us also devote some time to digesting a few political developments that have flown in under the wider media radar recently.

-- Mental health experts say we face a crisis because one in six returning soldiers from Iraq is suffering from post-traumatic stress, and the number is expected to grow rapidly. You will not be amazed to learn that the Pentagon did not anticipate the problem, since it has yet to anticipate anything about Iraq correctly.

A study by the Walter Reed Army Institute found 15.6 percent of Marines and 17.1 percent of soldiers surveyed after tours in Iraq suffer from major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can cause flashbacks, sleep disorders, violent outbursts, panic attacks, acute anxiety and emotional numbness. The numbers are expected to be higher among reservists than among career soldiers.

More going on in Fallujah than simple U.S. victory

Now that the smoke over Fallujah has cleared, and victory declared, let’s review:

War is wrong. Always has been, always will be.

Perhaps former President Jimmy Carter put it best when he concluded his acceptance speech for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize by saying, “War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

Unfortunately, for the past couple of weeks, the U.S. military has been engaged in doing exactly that: killing other people’s children.

It may not seem like it, judging from the almost complete lack of truth-telling on the evening news, or the increasingly difficult to believe statements of the U.S. military that few, if any, civilians are being killed.

But, as part of its recent attempt to clean out “insurgents” from the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Mosul and elsewhere, that’s what has been happening.

And civilians, perhaps hundreds or thousands of them, have been caught in the crossfire.

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