Fact-esque

Waves Hitting the Shore

From Morning Edition's story about the problems that the EU is having fighting terrorism:

Some in Europe worry that efforts to streamline anti-terrorism policies at the EU to look more like the U.S., could erode public oversight and individual rights here. De Vries says America's current image makes the job of fighting terrorism difficult in Europe.

"The United States used to be known as a country of the rule of law and of liberty," he says.

Today, those associations are with the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, detainees at Guantanamo Bay and CIA renditions, de Vries says.

"That is sapping support for the United States, and also indirectly for Europe worldwide," he says.

Remember that if another terrorist attack hits the US and we are subjected to the corporate media's expert analysis that all leads to the inescapable conclusion that it was the Democrats' fault.

                                                                          

eVoting Whistle Blowers this Wednesday Night on Voice of the Voters

Tune in to Voice of the Voters this Wednesday, May 2 at 8PM  to listen to an hour devoted to three American heroes - whistleblowers, who, based on their experiences on the ground, will paint a comprehensive picture of electronic voting in America, the deceptive practices of corporations, the often misguided relationships between election officials and electronic voting machine vendors, the various system inadequacies and how the voice of the citizen is left out of the elections process. 

Steve Heller became known as the "Diebold Whistleblower" when in January 2004, he stole and exposed legal documents providing smoking gun evidence about Diebold Election Systems' nefarious activities in the State of California.  Partly as a result of Heller's actions, in April 2004, former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley de-certified Diebold in California for what he called their "fraudulent," "despicable," and "deceitful behavior." 

From Utah,  Bruce Funk , who with Harry Hursti, was able to prove the insecurity of Diebold machines and the fact that votes could be made to disappear without evidence.   He is the Emery County Clerk, who, under pressure, resigned his position rather than preside over elections that used Diebold machinery.   

This week's special guest host, Ion Sancho is the Supervisor of Elections in Leon County, Florida, and the first elected official in the country to call for and carry out independent testing of electronic voting machines in his county.  He is a legend in voting rights circles.   In December of 2005, Mr. Sancho stepped onto the national stage when he became the first elected official in the country to call for and carry out independent testing of his county's electronic voting machines.  From BlackBoxVoting.org:

Due to contractual non-performance and security design issues, Leon County (Florida) supervisor of elections Ion Sancho has announced that he will never again use Diebold in an election. He has requested funds to replace the Diebold system from the county. On Tuesday, the most serious "hack" demonstration to date took place in Leon County. The Diebold machines succumbed quickly to alteration of the votes.

Stephen Heller, Bruce Funk and Ion Sancho each have direct personal experience with Diebold and the scars to prove it.   This week's Voice of the Voters will raise serious questions about  our current elections process and those who are controlling it. 

The bottom line for America: present day electronic voting machines (and supporting systems) are so fatally flawed that they cannot be secured.   Find out why from three people who know and who want America to know all about it this week on Voice of the Voters.   We must:

 

   *  STOP using the election process as part of the political game

* STOP having the election system of this Country determined by private parties needs for profits and political parties needs for control/victories versus citizens rights and needs for open independently verifiable, fair and  elections which can be proven to original intent of the voter

* STOP vendors from financing election and government associations and meetings

   * STOP and face vital truth: DREs (touchscreens) cannot provide openness and fairness

*  ASK WHY are we continuing to use touchscreen-voting systems, which do not allow an independent, fully observable process?  The uses of touchscreen voting runs counter to right of people to know what is really happening!

* STOP secrecy and private decisions; check "power" of political appointees to determine the direction of our election support system and make decisions with little or no oversight

As always, John Gideon, Executive Director of Voters Unite will give Voice of the Voters listeners a round-up of all the week's voting news.

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Voice of the Voters is an hour devoted to voting rights, election reform and voter-verified paper ballots.  Ultimately it is an exploration of Representative Democracy itself and the responsibilities of citizens and their elected representatives.  It airs every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM ET on 1360 AM and on the Internet.  (http://wnjc.duxpond.com/)

Listeners can call in questions live at 856-227-1360 and submit questions in advance at the SaveOurVote website.

Voice of the Voters  now also available as a podcast at iTunes.com under "Voice of the Voters" in the News & Politics category

Archived shows are available here.

Every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war.

Every Thursday evening at 6PM PA Action hosts a peace vigil outside our non-profit used books and clothing store.  Yesterday we had a special rally in opposition of the coming presdential veto of the already too-weak supplemental spending bill.   The coverage of the event is here.   It was called a "mini-rally" but believe me, getting fifteen people to show up in Bucks County on a beautiful Saturday morning is no small trick.

There are reports that the Dems will cave after BushCo vetoes the veto-proof bill.  I can't begin to tell you how disheartening that is to hear.  On the other hand, I heard the deadline to get a bill passed is the end of May, which means that if protests were to spring up across the country targeting  the President's lunatic obsession with  maintaining endless war and supporting Congress' sending this supplemental back to his desk unchanged, there's a chance that they'll have the courage to do just that. 

As always - as always - we have the power to change minds in Washington.  A lot of money is spent convincing us that we don't and that we shouldn't want to be bothered thinking about using that power or that if we did use that power it would be unseemly but the power is ours.

So how, in the next several of very crucial days, are you  going to use it?

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

That's how the radical right in this country think.  Add to that a patience that is nearly Sisyphusian and you'll understand why this quote from BushCo during his recent interview with Charlie Rose about his failed attempt to destroy Social Security is not the good news it may sound like at first:

GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, that`s going to be hard. I wish we could get it done. I`m not sure it`s going to happen. I tried, as you might recall, in `95 -- I mean, in 2005 -- and, you know, I just don`t think it`s going to -- you know, I`ll keep pushing, but I don`t think it`s going to happen. It`s a little defeatist. I don`t see it happening yet is a better way to put it.

If you care about Social Security, don't ever let down your guard.  They're just taking a breather. If you really care about Social Security, then fight like hell to reconstruct the industry sop, Medicare Part D, which is another step toward the privatization of that program.   

Movement Politics

I'll be clear from the start - I don't think that Cheney or Bush will be impeached.  I'm rarely right about this kind of thing, but I think the Dems would rather ride into 2008 with the much hated Moron Twins in office than anywhere else.   Also, not only would impeachment proceedings provide the distraction that the Right Wing Noise Machine and the corporate media are praying for, they also run the risk of sending BushCo's approval ratings into the forties and Dick's skyrocketing into the low twenties.    Politically, they're a losing game.   It's a shame because the process of impeachment was built to remove criminally disastrous administrations like the one we're suffering under now.   It's a special kind of agony to watch these people continue to get away with committing crimes that run our country into the dirt and endanger the whole globe at the same time.   

All that said, should the pressure on them to impeach let up?   Absolutely not.    As Avedon Carol has pointed out and as the success the radical right has had moving their Overton's Window illustrates, we need smart, vocal people to continue to make the case for ideas that seem to have no chance of succeeding.   It will take a classic pincer movement to derail this administration, their catastrophic war and the corporate media that protects it all.  But you can't have a pincer movement without attacks from both sides.  Happily, that seems to be exactly what is shaping up.

From Congress, which would have to be considered as mainstream as it gets, you've got a barrage of oversight hearings that are exploding in the administration's face and finally in the pages of newspapers every day.  They've also put together a beautifully constructed, pork-free supplemental, which not only expresses the public's will but dares the president to veto it.  Via Booman's analysis of the pro-war WaPo story about the veto-proof bill:

The bill has one hard deadline (July 1st, 2007). On that day, the Bush administration must certify that the Iraqi government is meeting benchmarks or start bringing our troops home. Other than that, there are only non-binding goals. But the hard deadline pretty much assures that the White House will heavily whip Republicans in Congress to vote against it before the President ultimately vetoes it. And every Republican that votes against this bill will get nailed by another provision.

The agreement would raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years.

And another.   

It includes tax cuts worth $4.8 billion over 10 years.

And more.   

The bill includes $400 million in energy assistance for low-income families, the lower amount provided in the House version of the bill. It provides $650 million for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, $100 million more than either version provided.

And they'll get to vote against this.   

It would spend on veterans' health care $1.8 billion that Bush had not asked for and boosts funding for troop training and equipment. It also includes $2 billion more than the White House requested for homeland security.

And against this.   

...the agreement keeps Walter Reed Army Medical Center open for now, overruling the federal commission that had planned to shutter the Washington-based facility. The bill provides $20 million for repairs at Reed, keeping it open while upgrades are made to its successors.

On the left flank, and forgive the military imagery but it's appropriate here, on the left you've got Dennis Kucinich, with the support of groups like After Downing Street, introducing articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney.   They aren't going to lead anywhere, but they don't have to.    They move the window.   Anyone who speaks against them is a fool or a Bushie, which is a distinction without a difference. On the ground you've got Move On and partner organizations helping the grassroots to answer a veto of this sensibile and patriotic supplemental with rapid response rallies all over the country - attended not only by civillians and what the new anti-war coalition likes to refer to as "the usual suspects,"  but also by vets, retired generals and military families.   

This is how a movement works, by getting all hands on deck, by refusing to throw any peaceful idea out the window of pragmatism, by framing the debate along our terms, which in this case includes throwing most of this criminal administration in prison.    Avedon Carol explained the necessary urgency perfectly:

... it's already very, very late. As I've said before, the rest of the world already had a deadline for us, and it was the 2004 election - until then, they were waiting for us to rectify the mistake we allowed to happen in 2000. After the failure to correct in 2004, the rest of the world moved to contain the United States. They've all been quietly making changes in the way they deal with us (and our money).     No one can afford to pussyfoot around anymore. We need to get out of Iraq and we need to hold this administration accountable. It's up to every one of us to get across to our legislators, at both the state and national level, that this administration has to be stopped at all costs and, as much as possible, the laws they have passed to hurt America must be overturned. Our neighbors do not love us anymore, and we are going to have to rebuild our own house. We don't have time to mess around.

Practice oversight, impeach the bastards, march in the streets, write letters to the editors, talk to your friends.  No act is insignificant.  No peaceful position too extreme.  Embrace the entirety of the First Amendment.  It's the only way to get this war stopped and to take out country back from the extremists who are destroying it.

If You Want to Give that Albatross a Rest, I've Got a Millstone in Your Size

Wow, McCain is flailing like a drowning man on the Daily Show.  He's facing a real interviewer in Stewart and his only response is to talk over him and misdirect the conversation.   He must be wishing Timmy would repel in to save the day.

I'm sure McCain is going to have his handlers telling him what a great job he did tonight but any reasonable man would watch this interview and drop out of the race.  He made a deal with the devil in 2004.  Now he's paying for it.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

"They Can No Longer be Trusted with the Lives of Our Service Members"

The title of this post is a quote from Peter Granato, who took part in the VideoVets project at YouTube.   Go watch.  Don't miss John Bruhns' video.  He captures the message in a nutshell:  "I feel that my willingness to fight for this country has been used and exploited."

And that's a crime.

Vote Suppression in Bucks County

Photos from Voting Rights rally in Bensalem, PA last night.

Voter suppression is being alleged in Bensalem, PA because  a polling place that's been existed for eleven years has been moved out of an apartment complex where mostly immigrants, minorities and senior live.  From the Bucks County Courier Times story describing the protest rally that was held last night:

Racism, fixed elections and dirty politics were some of the accusations that flew at a Bensalem protest Monday night.

More than 50 residents and concerned citizens gathered at the Bensalem municipal building to protest the Bucks County Board of Elections' decision to move a polling place from the Creekside Apartments complex to the Polish Army Veterans Hall, one mile away.

The apartment complex houses a large number of minorities and elderly, low-income and disabled people who may have difficulty accessing a different polling place.

Those who criticized the decision believe the motivation was political. In the 2006 general election, 330 people in the Lower Middle 5 District voted Democrat while 98 people voted Republican, according to voter records.

Those supporting the change, including township Solicitor Joseph Pizzo, claim it was an issue of safety because of recent shootings at the complex.

Last night a speaker at the rally wanted to know why the crime rate in Creekside, which is dropping,  suddenly warrants moving an established polling place?   Two people complained to the county that they didn't feel safe voting there.  But it more likely has something to do with Bensalem's revitalized Democratic party and the Democratic win of a city council seat, which broke up the Republican domination of that body.   The tide seems to be turning in Bensalem and it looks like the Republicans don't like it. 

They'll have a lot more not to like soon if the residents of Creekside maintain the energy and determination they displayed last night at the voting rights rally.  The next test of their perseverence will be to organize safe transportation for Creekside voters to the new pollling place, which is across a major thoroughfare and then a mile away.   If they are able to get every registered voter in the complex to the polls on Election Day, the people who made it more difficult for the residents of Creekside to vote may get something they didn't bargain for, as they find out exactly what the vote means to people who, as Al Sharpton said, didn't get it by turning a certain age but buy working for it.

You can read more about Republican Voting Integrity at Digby's place and get an idea why people would suspect that the same sort of thing is happening now in Bensalem.

UPDATE: More coverage.

 

 

I'm No Donald Rumsfeld ...

and bad is bad when it comes to people getting hauled off buses and shot but this is very, very bad:

Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and members of a tiny Kurdish religious sect, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot.

Oil, sectarian hatred, an independent Kurdistan - there's so much in this tiny story that I have no idea what it means.  But the Kurds have always made me nervous and if they're getting drawn into the fighting, that only means disaster and a harder job of keeping this castrophe from exploding into a regional war. 

More on Iraq:  read this great post at dKos which, via a BBC mapping tool, looks at how effective the ethnic partioning of Baghdad along Sunni/Shia lines has been since 2006.   

UPDATE: Ahhhh

Killings have been on the rise in Kirkuk in recent months as tensions have escalated between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen in advance of a referendum, expected to be held before the end of the year, to decide whether the city should join Iraqi Kurdistan.

Infant Mortality Up

What can you say about a country that lets its babies die?

HOLLANDALE, Miss. — For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has risen in Mississippi and several other states.

The setbacks have raised questions about the impact of cuts in welfare and Medicaid and of poor access to doctors, and, many doctors say, the growing epidemics of obesity, diabetes and hypertension among potential mothers, some of whom tip the scales here at 300 to 400 pounds.

“I don’t think the rise is a fluke, and it’s a disturbing trend, not only in Mississippi but throughout the Southeast,” said Dr. Christina Glick, a neonatologist in Jackson, Miss., and past president of the National Perinatal Association.

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005.

This is not a hard problem to solve, as proven by a program that emphasizes pre- and postnatal care and education:

In the past 10 years, the infant mortality rate for blacks in most of the Delta has averaged about 14 per thousand in some counties and more than 20 per thousand in others. But just to the south of Hollandale, Sharkey County, one of the poorest, has had a startlingly different record. From 1991 through 2005, the rate for blacks hovered at around 5 per thousand.

State officials say the county’s population is too small — it registers only 100 births a year — to be statistically significant. But many experts feel it is no coincidence that a steep drop in infant deaths followed the start of an intensive home-visiting system run by the Cary Christian Center, using local mothers as counselors.

“If this is a fluke it’s a 15-year fluke,” said Dr. Glick, the neonatologist.

The program, which is paid for with private money, buses nearly all pregnant blacks in Sharkey and a small neighboring county to pre- and postnatal classes.

In the coming weeks, I'll be working to get the domestic discretionary spending number that comes out of the final budget resolution as close to the House's budget number as possible.  Republicans, wielding the tax-and-spend cliche like a lethal club, and Blue Dog Democrats, cowering from the swings and even picking up the weapon on their own, will be pushing for as small a number as possible, closer to the one that came out of the Senate.  The good news is that both numbers are improvements over the immoral budgets that BushCo has become notorious for passing.   But getting the number as high as possible is important.  It will mean more people helped, more children fed, fewer people jailed, fewer children dead.