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World4Kerry * DemRegistrationsTrashed * Feedback
17 October 2004
"My kind of loyalty was to one's country,
not to its institutions or its officeholders.
The country is the real thing,
the substantial thing, the eternal thing;
it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to;
institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and
clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable,
cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death."
– Mark Twain1) World wants Kerry to beat Bush- - Platoon defies orders in Iraq
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of War
2) Voter Registrations Trashed by Fraudulent Repubs- - Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared
- - Block the Vote
- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION
3) NaderFactor FeedbackDeja-vu
If there was a morning star and I found a path
to a mountain reservoir
and viewed the past in moments of today
I must say, I have found a way..
Chosen, because I choose to do what I came here for,
realizing I have seen it all before,
A deja-vu from a morning star
Reawakening love to a planet
which has strayed much too far.Editor's Notes:One of the best things about a deja-vu is that it gives you a feeling of being multidimensional in terms of time and space. Now, as time approaches an end of a cycle, the coming US Presidential Election will either spawn a possible new direction back toward a greater democracy [of, by, for the people].. or lead toward a more rapid withdrawal and deeper slide into fascist-based policies. We would then expect more US Government lies, energy and economic wars, Armageddon.. and Supreme Court dangers limiting an individual's freedoms.
Please take actions in "Swing States" these coming weeks Be a part of a wave, and join with a mainstream majority in support of a regime change in the US that gives us a chance for reasonably dealing with the greater problems at hand, than what we have experienced by an administration making matters worse.
"Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility
is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order."
– John Kerry** Kerry guns down Bush with zinger --The face-off in Tempe, Arizona, produced the best one-liner of the debates when Democrat challenger John Kerry defended his economic credentials. Trying to paint the Massachusetts senator as a big-spending, high-taxing liberal, George W. Bush said there was a "mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the left bank". But Senator Kerry returned fire with a genuine zinger: "Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order."
Story posted:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11078479%255E401,00.html* Thanks to
Citizens for a Legitimate Government for this and other breaking news alerts.
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Action Alerts!Link to download a campaign flyer you can use:
Why Vote FOR John Kerry and AGAINST George Bushby Rob Kall (editor of OpEdNews)
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Also, major media corporation will air anti-Kerry movie
just before election...learn more from AlterNet.org and take action:
www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20151/
1) World wants Kerry to beat Bush- - Platoon defies orders in Iraq
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of War
- - World wants Kerry to beat Bush
Published in the Sydney Morning Herald Online
October 15, 2004
The US President, George Bush, is encountering growing international hostility to his campaign for a second term in the White House.
A remarkable collaborative polling exercise, undertaken by leading newspapers in 10 countries across the globe, has highlighted strong opposition to the Bush re-election campaign.
While the findings have no direct impact on the US election - the poll excludes the Americans whose vote really counts - they show the Bush Administration is struggling to secure popular support for its policies outside American borders.
The hostility is directed not only at the White House: the image of the US itself appears to have suffered collateral damage. This is despite the fact that most of those polled believe in the US alliance and declare they are not anti-American.
The ambitious exercise, initiated by Canada's Quebec-based La Presse, required the 10 project partners to run identical polls in mid- to late September to gauge public attitudes towards the US election on November 2.
The Herald, which commissioned its regular pollster ACNielsen for the exercise, is the first paper to appear with the results in print under Friday's co-ordinated publication date.
Across most of the countries surveyed, including Australia, opinions towards the US had deteriorated over the first Bush term.
Only Israel, lockstep with the US in terms of foreign policy objectives and delivery, ran against the trend. Forty per cent of Israelis surveyed said their attitude towards the US had improved over the past two or three years. Twenty-six per cent said their view had soured.
This contrasts with the response elsewhere. In Canada, 64 per cent said their attitude had worsened, France 70 per cent, Britain 45 per cent, Japan 74 per cent, South Korea 67 per cent and Australia 54 per cent.
The souring view is directly linked to public dissatisfaction with Mr Bush, mainly over his prosecution of the Iraq war.
In all countries except for Israel, majority opinion remains firmly against the US-led war. (No specific question on Iraq was asked in the Australian exercise.) In July, a majority of Australians (55 per cent) said the war was not justified, down eight points since May.
The strongest opposition to the war was in South Korea, Mexico, Spain and France.
This anti-war mood appears to feed directly into an international preference for John Kerry, the Democrat challenging Mr Bush for the presidency.
In eight of the 10 countries taking part in the poll, Senator Kerry is rated the preferred winner, with huge margins in France, Canada and Spain. Only in Russia (52-48) and Israel (a more decisive 50-24) is Mr Bush the preferred winner..
{Truncated]
For the complete article, see
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/15/1097784013044.html?oneclick=true= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Platoon defies orders in IraqMiss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns
[Excerpt]
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq - north of Baghdad - because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.
The platoon could be charged with the willful disobeying of orders, punishable by dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and up to five years confinement, said military law expert Mark Stevens, an associate professor of justice studies at Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C.
No military officials were able to confirm or deny the detainment of the platoon Thursday.
But today, Sgt. Salju Thomas of the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad issued a statement saying that an investigation has begun.
"The Commander General of the 13 Corps Support Group has appointed a deputy commander to lead an investigation into allegations that members of the 343 Quartermaster Company refused to participate in theri assigned convoy mission on Oct. 13," Thomas' statement said.
The investigation team is currently in Tallil taking statements and interviewing those involved, Thomas said in the statement.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said he plans to submit a congressional inquiry today on behalf of the Mississippi soldiers to launch an investigation into whether they are being treated improperly.
"I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped," said Thompson, who was contacted by families. "I have had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated. It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq.
"President Bush takes the position that the troops are well-armed, but if this situation is true, it calls into question how honest he has been with the country," Thompson said.
For the article, see:
www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/NEWS01/410150366/1002= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Human Hell and the Demons of WarManuel Valenzuela
We are inseparable from death and destruction, suffering and violence, having become creatures addicted to the malice inherent in human evil. Turning the pages of the little we know of our own past, one thing becomes quite apparent: Throughout time, in all corners of the world, mankind has lived side by side with war, destruction and death..
For the complete article, see:
http://207.44.245.159/article7079.htm
2) Voter Registrations Trashed by Fraudulent Repubs- - Progress Report: Republicans Running Scared
- - Block the Vote
- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION
- - Voter Registrations Possibly TrashedBy George Knapp
KLAS TV, 12 October 2004
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA | Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms sig ned by Democrats.
"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on Election Day are sadly mistaken. We attempted to speak to Voters Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone else.
The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent. Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News she had the same suspicions when she worked there.
It's going to take a while to sort all of this out, but the immediate concern for voters is to make sure you really are registered.
Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE or click here to see if you are registered.
The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
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- - Progress Report: Republicans Running ScaredAs the election gets closer, the Republican Party has turned to voter suppression efforts to try to sway the election, by keeping voters "off of the rolls and away from the polls." (Paul Krugman has the latest rundown on Republican efforts to block the vote.) The Center for American Progress joined 23 concerned parties in a joint statement on how to protect the vote and uphold democracy in the upcoming election.
For linked resources, see this originally posted report:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100480#2- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Voters should not be intimidated by fears of a stolen election. If voters don't get out and vote, the election will not be stolen but given away. Instead, everyone should get out and vote, vote early, and – to be safe – bring an I.D. Also, any voter experiencing problems on Election Day should call the Election Protection hotline, at (866) OUR-VOTE.
SPROUL'S REGISTRATION MALFEASANCE: This week, explosive new evidence emerged of direct ties between the RNC and a Republican consulting firm being investigated by Oregon and Nevada for perpetrating widespread voter fraud.
Sproul & Associates, paid $500,000 by the Republican National Committee, created a voter registration front group in several states. Some of the canvassers the company hired say they were told they wouldn't be paid for registering Democrats. Employees in the two western states have accused the firm of destroying, dumping or shredding the forms of Democrats who thought they were registered to vote. Also, an employee in West Virginia quit after she was told to only register individuals who would confirm they were planning to vote for President Bush. The head of Sproul & Associates, Nathan Sproul, has long ties to the GOP: he was the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch an immediate investigation on the federal level. (The New Yorker provides a look at how Ashcroft's Justice Department itself has politicized the voting process.)
CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR RIGHTS SUPPRESSED:
Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood – appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 – recommended trashing any registration forms on which voters did not check a box at the top to indicate they were U.S. citizens, even though they had already signed an oath at the bottom of the form swearing that they were. Even after the problem was realized, election officials did not process some of the fixed forms in time. Other registrants weren't even told their forms were flawed. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "labor unions and voting-rights groups sued to stop the disqualification of more than 10,000 incomplete registration forms in Florida, accusing the state of overly restrictive rules that disproportionately hurt minority voters." And according to a suit filed by People for the American Way, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the AFL-CIO, "more than a third of the incomplete forms in Broward and Miami-Dade counties came from African American registrants, even though African Americans make up only 17 percent of the electorate in Broward and 20 percent in Miami-Dade."
For the complete American Progress article, see:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100480#2= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Block the VoteExcerpted from 'Block The Vote'
By Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
15 October 2004
The case of Florida's felon list - used by state officials, as in 2000, to try to wrongly disenfranchise thousands of blacks - has been widely reported. Less widely reported has been overwhelming evidence that the errors were deliberate.
In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg Palast, who originally reported the story of the 2000 felon list, reveals that few of those wrongly purged from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter lists. State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending on the county, those attempting to get their votes back have been required to seek clemency for crimes committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial proceedings to prove that they are not felons with similar names.
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The BBC documentary of Palast's report on Florida and more - "Bush Family Fortunes"
- premiers in New York this Sunday, in Washington Monday and in LA on October 24th.
For info go to
GregPalast.com[The film will premiere in Keene, NH on Oct. 26th - see
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And officials appear to be doing their best to make voting difficult for those blacks who do manage to register. Florida law requires local election officials to provide polling places where voters can cast early ballots. Duval County is providing only one such location, when other counties with similar voting populations are providing multiple sites. And in Duval and other counties the early voting sites are miles away from precincts with black majorities.
Next week, I'll address the question of whether the votes of Floridians with the wrong color skin will be fully counted if they are cast. Mr. Palast notes that in the 2000 election, almost 180,000 Florida votes were rejected because they were either blank or contained overvotes.
Demographers from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission estimate that 54 percent of the spoiled ballots were cast by blacks. And there's strong evidence that this spoilage didn't reflect voters' incompetence: it was caused mainly by defective voting machines and may also reflect deliberate vote-tampering.
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable.
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- - NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION"I remember the stolen presidential election of 2000 and I am willing to take action in 2004 if the election is stolen again. I support efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to and on Election Day, November 2nd. If that right is systematically violated, I pledge to join nationwide protests starting on November 3rd, either in my community, in the states where the fraud occurred, or in Washington DC."
Please sign the pledge now at www.Nov3.US
INITIAL SIGNATORIES:
Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director, AFL-CIO
Fred Azcarate, Jobs with Justice
Patrick Barrett, RadFest: Midwest Social Forum
Brian Benford, Madison Common Council
Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Adrienne Maree Brown, League of Pissed Off Voters
Mike Brune, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Dennis Brutus, poet
Andrea Buffa, Global Exchange
Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center
Leslie Cagan, United for Peace and Justice
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
David Cobb, Green Presidential Nominee
Steve B. Cobble, political strategist
Rev. James Demus, III, Director, NAACP, Chicago Southside
Charlie Derber, Professor of Sociology, Boston College
Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies & Cities for Peace
Theresa El-Amin, Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN)
Daniel Ellsberg, author
Larry Fahn, President, Sierra Club
Lisa Fithian, Root Activist Network of Trainers
Arun Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
Ed Garvey, Fighting Bob Fest
Greg Gerritt, Executive Director, Friends of the Moshassuck
Ted Glick, National Coordinator, IPPN
Jim Goodman, Family Farm Defenders
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice
Jody Grage Haug, Green Peace Action (GPAX)
Andy Heidt, Madison Common Council
Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH
Reverend James Lawson, civil rights leader
Natalie Johnson Lee, Minneapolis City Council
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun
Pete Karas, Racine Common Council
Brenda Konkel, President, Madison Common Council
Doug La Follette, Wisconsin Secretary of State
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
Ben Manski, Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Jessica Marshall, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
Elizabeth Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice
Mike McCabe, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Robert McChesney, Free Press
Michael Moore, Filmmaker
Holly Near, singer-songwriter
Maya O'Connor, Labor Greens Network
Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis
Rebecca Rotzler, Alder, New Paltz
Marc Sanson, Co-Chair, Green Party of the United States
Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal
John Sellers, Ruckus Society
Charles Shaw, Newtopia Magazine
Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority
Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace
Starhawk, activist and writer
Ajita Talwalker, United States Students Association
Chuck Turner, Boston City Council
Chris Vaeth, This Time We're Watching
Jason West, Mayor, New Patlz, New York
Bob Wing, War Times
Dean Zimmerman, Minneapolis City Council
Howard Zinn, historian
Please join us by signing the pledge now at
www.nov3.us
3) NaderFactor FeedbackFrom the editor, Jonathan Mark:
This is an email reply to a letter from an individual over the following list serves, regarding FN's last issue on Bush-funding for Nader in key States.
To: NH_for_Kucinich@yahoogroups.com,
Cc: < Minnesota4Kucinich@yahoogroups.com >, < texans4Kucinich@yahoogroups.com >, < Kucinich4President@yahoogroups.com >
Subject: Re: [NH_for_Kucinich] BehindWar * CO2 RiseSurprise * Peace *
[jm, from previous email]
>"In the platform, yes, I agree, Kerry is much closer to Bush, but in the factor of there being either Kerry or Bush as US president, Nader has more in common for the Bush ticket."
[David wrote:]
>Could you please speak more clearly? Please expand on what you are thinking and apply some logic to your words. What are the commonalities Nader/Bush?
this is what i wrote originally:
"..in the factor of there being either Kerry or Bush as US president, Nader has more in common for the Bush ticket."
that is all i basically wrote.. and your claims of my being libelous is absurd.. if nader was as good of a leader as you make him to be.. his actions would be more [connected] with our situation on the ground.. i was endorsing the nader platform with the greens in 2000, but if nader had the leadership to effectively challenge al gore to support IRV's for his support in swing states.. we could have had al gore for the past 4 years and with 3rd party unity pressure.. to push the dems to adopt IRVs in 2004.. and then voting for ralph nader for president would not have the spoiler factor.. and a real chance of a progressive platform adopted by the u.s. govtment..
in any case.. my reporting on the report posted at
thenaderfactor.com/press/072304/
remains.. and there you will find the details of their claims that bush money and support is behind nader in various states..
also.. before you attack FN for reporting the news.. remember our
disclaimer at the bottom of each issue:
"The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News."
but as far as appropriate news for FN in our campaign to remove GW from office.. and the nader record.. and ineffectiveness to adopt the practical realities for winning IRVs for the country in support of all third party candidates.. nader will be used by the bushites to their advantage.. and the platform of nader, like his support for leonard peltier in 2000 with the greens platform.. remains as empty words.. without the effectiveness and unity and priority of deeds accomplished to back up the rhetoric..
i am not praising or comparing kerry with nader.. but the difference of kerry and bush under our current circumstances.. hope this is clear..
jonathan
[David wrote:]
>You have alleged collusion, and you haven't backed it up. That is libel. What is more you did not respond to the clear evidence of collusion between Bush and Kerry. It seems that you are open to lying, to back up a false argument. If you are going to break the law, you should think of a better excuse or alibi..
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
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=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>
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