Browsing all articles from October, 2007

Oct
31

Yet another warning for Bush/Cheney to ignore

Iraqi Dam Seen In Danger of Deadly Collapse

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 30, 2007; A01

AT THE MOSUL DAM, Iraq — The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.

Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. “The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability,” in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.

At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam’s deficiencies.

Support HR 4463 (with eyes wide open)

Friends,

This is the House version of the Deceptive Practices and Voters Intimidation Act.

There’s also a version pending in the Senate.

Here’s the full text of the Senate legislation.

I’d like to note here that this bill, if it should pass, will likely have a limited effect,

at least as long as BushCo’s DoJ remains in place. As you will note, the bill relies

on the Attorney General to take remedial action–a rather naive expectation,

inasmuch as the Attorney General, and the DoJ’s entire voting rights division, is

right now busily disenfranchising as many non-Republicans as possible. (I’ve sent

you Steve Rosenfeld’s superb work on this all-important, although still neglected,

story.) Asking the AG to deal with vote suppression, therefore, is like asking some

fat fox to provide protection for a bunch of bleeding chickens.

Also, this bill stipulates that the AG will draft the appropriate regulations “in consultation

with … the Election Assistance Commission” (among other entities), which is no less

troubling, as BushCo’s EAC is yet another pack of foxes, put in place by the regime

to further limit our participation in elections.

Despite these qualms, however, I support the passage of this legislation, as it would

serve the very important purpose of criminalizing actions that the Bush Republicans

have been conducting with impunity–actions that, in fact, have helped to put the

Bush regime in power. These laws should be on the books, so that they might

eventually be used on our behalf, if and when we have a government that’s willing

to enforce them.

Tactically, moreover, it’s a wise idea to demonstrate, as vocally as possible, that we

won’t any longer tolerate the Jim Crow trickery now used nationwide by the

Republicans (and largely tolerated by the Democrats).

MCM

Dear Mark,

I wanted to forward you the email below from Eric Marshall, the Campaign Manager of the National Campaign for Fair Elections.

In short, in the last 48 hours, we’ve seen an outpouring of support for our Election Protection campaign to pass the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act. Eric recommended that we extend our deadline, and I agree.

http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/dpdonate

As Eric details below, every donation allows us to fight for election reform in Washington, and protect the rights of voters in states across the nation. He puts it best – “We have the knowledge and the experience to protect elections – all we need now is the resources.”

Please donate today:

http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/dpdonate

Thanks for all your support,
Jonah

________________________________________

Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 9:04 AM
To: Jonah
Subject: Building momentum for fair elections

Jonah,

In the last 48 hours, we’ve gotten even closer to our fundraising goal! I think this is strong evidence that momentum is building around fighting for fair elections – and we should extend our deadline to accommodate it.

Are you willing to send another email out to supporters? I think you should highlight exactly how their support allows us to protect the rights of voters and fight for election reform. For instance, every dollar contributed allows us to:

* Run the Election Protection hotline, so voters can get accurate information and report voting problems and our volunteers can fix problems quickly;
* Send thousands of trained volunteers to make sure polling places operate fairly and smoothly;
* Fight for reforms like the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act; and

* Inform citizens, lawmakers, and election officials about the problems some people face when they try to exercise their right to vote.

During our Election Protection work in 2004 and 2006, we learned exactly what needs to be done – in Congress, and around the country – to ensure that elections are free and fair and that voters can cast a meaningful ballot on Election Day.

We have the knowledge and the experience to protect elections – all we need now is the resources. With momentum building, we can’t stop now.

Best,
Eric

Eric Marshall
Campaign Manager, National Campaign for Fair Elections
Voting Rights Project
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

October 30, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
30

Brad is live-blogging Conyers' hearings on John Tanner

<>
THIS MESSAGE IS FROM THE BradBlogAlert@cville.com LIST!
<>

We’re live-blogging the hearings featuring John “Minorities Die First”
Tanner in the U.S. House Judiciary commitee this morning. Join us as you
like…

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5222

Updated as things roll…

—
Brad Friedman
Publisher/Editor, The BRAD BLOG
http://www.BradBlog.com

October 30, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
30

Ohio to help overseas voters

Ohio part of online project to help overseas voters

Ohio is one of three states participating in a pilot project designed to make it easier for members of the military and others living overseas to access voting information online.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is working with the Pew Charitable Trust and Overseas Vote Foundation and plans to include a link on her Web site to what is being billed as a user-friendly system to automate the process for registering to vote, requesting absentee ballots and finding voting information.

Brunner previously had expressed interest in the project and traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to participate in a news conference with the state secretaries in Alabama and Minnesota to announce the initiative.

The Web site, overseasvotefoundation.org, prompts voters for information relevant to their home states and generates a printout when needed for mailing back to the United States.

The Overseas Vote Foundation is allowing the three states to license its software for customized use.

There’s no reliable estimate of how many Ohio voters are overseas, but the project should help track them, Brunner’s office said.

– M.N.

________________________________________________________________

I wonder what people think about this. I went into the website and it looks really easy to register to vote. If I lived overseas that could be good.

So why is this so easy, and yet if you are walking around in Ohio with a clip board in the inter-city of town A, but you are from town B, that you must be registered to register voters in town A, and you must turn those forms in with all kinds of rules (and legal threats for if you do it wrong), and you can’t just give them back to your organization that you were helping to register voters for that they can turn them in as a group and know how many they got statewide at one time.

Will these records be able to be audited from the overseasvotefoundation.org? Or will they be property of that organization? Just wondering… I hope it is all for good.

Paddy Shaffer
Founder, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

October 30, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
30

"Taxi to the Dark Side"

Hi Mark,

I thought I’d pass this along, though it is usually outside your purview. Taxi to the Dark Side is a look at US prisons in Afghanistan, Bagram specifically, and innocent men who have died in US military custody there.

It examines a particular case. Great work from Alex Gibney and the BBC.

regards,

ken

preamble:

Over one hundred prisoners have died in suspicious circumstances in U.S. custody during the “war on terror.” “Taxi to the Dark Side” takes an in-depth look at one case: an Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar, who was considered an honest and kind man by the people of his rustic village.

So when he was detained by the U.S military one afternoon, after picking up three passengers, denizens wondered why this man was randomly chosen to be held in prison, and, especially, without trial?

Five days after his arrest Dilawar died in his Bagram prison cell. His

death came within a week of another death of a detainee at Bagram. The conclusion, with autopsy evidence, was that the former taxi driver and the detainee who passed away before him, had died due to sustained injuries inflicted at the prison by U.S. soldiers.
…

October 30, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
29

Loads of horseshit from the corporate press

Not surprising, since they’re all fixated on “the horse race”…

MCM

THE INVISIBLE PRIMARYâ€”INVISIBLE NO LONGER: A First Look at Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign

October 29, 2007

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy

In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media had already winnowed the race to mostly five candidates and offered Americans relatively little information about their records or what they would do if elected, according to a comprehensive new study of the election coverage across the media.

The press also gave some candidates measurably more favorable coverage than others. Democrat Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, enjoyed by far the most positive treatment of the major candidates during the first five months of the yearâ€”followed closely by Fred Thompson, the actor who at the time was only considering running. Arizona Senator John McCain received the most negative coverageâ€”much worse than his main GOP rivals.

Tone of Coverage Percent of All Stories
	Positive	Negative
Hillary Clinton	26.9	37.8
Barack Obama	46.7	15.8
Rudy Giuliani	27.8	37.0
John McCain	12.4	47.9

Meanwhile, the tone of coverage of the two party front runners, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was virtually identical, and more negative than positive, according to the study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidatesâ€™ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidatesâ€™ records or past public performance, the study found.

Rumsfeld charged with torture in French court

Published on Monday, October 29, 2007 by One World
Rumsfeld Charged with Torture in French Court
by Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK – Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. secretary of defense, is facing criminal charges in France for ordering the torture of prisoners in Iraq and at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Last week, some of the world’s leading human rights law groups filed a complaint before a French court charging Rumsfeld with authorizing and ordering torture.

The complaint was registered at the office of the prosecutor of the Court of First Instance in Paris when Rumsfeld was in the city for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine.

“We will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in torture are brought to justice,” said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit human rights law firm in the United States.

"Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"

Mark,

Here is the latest about what’s going on with our documentary, UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections (www.UncountedTheMovie.com). Please share this information with any people or groups you know that will have an interest.

First, our DVD RELEASE DATE is Tuesday, November 6 – one year before the 2008 presidential election. In addition to the film, the DVD has more than one hour of bonus footage, including extended interviews and scenes. We will send you a more formal announcement about our DVD release on November 6. For now, people can PRE-ORDER THE DVD AT: http://uncountedthemovie.com/order-the-dvd.html

Second, our THEATRICAL PREMIERE is Monday, November 12, at the historic Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. We are expecting a sellout crowd of nearly 400 people. The event is sponsored by Common Cause and Gathering to Save Our Democracy (the group Bernie Ellis founded). Here is a link to information about that event: http://www.belcourt.org/events?categories=Event&id=52372

Third, our film will be available for SCREENINGS nationwide beginning November 13. Many groups are already talking to us about featuring our film as the centerpiece for events to stir up interest in election integrity issues. I plan to make myself available as often as possible for followup Q&A sessions at these screenings. Please encourage interested people and groups you know to contact us to do a screening of UNCOUNTED in their community: http://uncountedthemovie.com/screenings.html – or they can just contact me directly at David@UncountedTheMovie.com.

Looking ahead, we are also in the initial stages of putting together a national screening tour during January & February – coinciding with the presidential primary elections in most of the 50 states. More about that later, as plans develop.

Finally, our TRAILER on YouTube has gotten plenty of attention – already more than 4,000 viewings in just a few weeks. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nJz09T0HME.

It is all very exciting to launch our film almost one year to the day before what might be our most important presidential election ever. We hope our film can help bring a new integrity to our election process – and, most importantly, to the 2008 presidential election. For more information about our film, people can visit our recently completed website at www.UncountedTheMovie.com.

Please forward this email to your lists and to anyone you think will have an interest in our film. Consider also posting our infomation on your website or with any discussion groups or blogs in which you participate.

Thanks so much for your support,

David

David Earnhardt
Producer, director & writer, UNCOUNTED
www.UncountedTheMovie.com

October 29, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
29

Dem candidate thrown out of Dem convention

Two items:

This has been a busy weekend. On October 27, 2007, John Russell and I went to the Peace Rally in Orlando, then he went to the annual Florida Democratic Party Convention. John won the Democratic primary and ran for Congress in Florida’s 5th district in 2006. He also developed evidence showing that the official election results were not accurate, and he caught the Florida Democratic Party’s chair on tape trying to explain why she was accepting lobbying money in a deal that had been arranged by a Republican lobbyist.

As a result, the FDP has decided to attack John, and when we went to the FDP annual convention on October 27, 2007, John was attacked physically and verbally and thrown out just after walking in. I caught most of it on video, but since I was the cameraman and I have been labeled a “danger to the public” by the Florida Bar, the FDP bloggers have taken to attacking John for associating with me.

Here are links to the Fascism in Fantasyland video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-547222172065922876 and the St. Petersburg Times Buzz – Trouble in Paradise article and comments about John Russell being thrown out of the Democratic convention http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2007/10/trouble-in-para.html Please take a look and make a comment on the blog.

Thanks,

Mark A. Adams JD/MBA

P.S. There is also info on the DU blog at http://tinyurl.com/yob7ka

Fascism in Fantasyland

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-547222172065922876

_On October 27, 2007, John Russell went to the Peace Rally in Orlando, then he went to the annual Florida Democratic Party Convention. After walking in the doors carrying signs promoting John Edwards for president and saying hello to Clint Curtis’ supporters who know John from his work on election reform, Mitch Kates rushes over, pushes John, and says, “Why are you here. You weren’t invited. You have to leave.”

Then, Mitch realizes that John has supporters with him and the camera is on, and Mitch takes his overly aggressive behavior down a couple of notches. John had been invited to the convention as he is a Democrat who has worked to help Democrats get elected for years and as he won the Party’s nomination for Florida’s district 5 Congressional seat in 2006.

However, this is not the first time that John has been told that he cannot attend a Democratic function. After John confirmed the Miami Herald’s reports that former Florida Republican Party chair, Al Cardenas, had arranged to provide lobbying fees for Florida Democratic Party chair, Karen Thurman, and after John had asked why the FDP leaders had not helped him and other anti-war Democrats get elected, John was informed that he was not allowed to attend the Pasco County Democratic Party’s fundraiser.

See the Tampa Tribune article – Dark Horse Raises Fist at Democrats http://www.tbo.com/pasco/MGB82X2KW7F.html

_Alison Morano, chair of the Pasco County Democratic Executive Committee, claims that the bar John from its fundraiser, and she is seen at the convention with Mitch Kates as he goes to throw John out of the convention. _ _FDP Communications Director Mark Bubriski told the Tampa Tribune that John showed up at FDP headquarters and started harassing staff, but you can judge for yourself after watching the video here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2561123694081990557

_Here is video of John asking Karen Thurman about the Miami Herald article: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM1qEtNIgSM

__For more information see_ _Michael Collins’ article, “Florida Citizens Versus Party Insiders,” _http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0707/S00219.htm

October 29, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Oct
29

52% back (pointless) strike against Iran

Breaking News and Commentary

from Citizens For Legitimate Government
28 Oct 2007

http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

No evidence Iran is making nukes: ElBaradei 29 Oct 2007 Chief UN atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said overnight he had no evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons and accused US leaders of adding “fuel to the fire” with recent bellicose rhetoric. “I have not received any information that there is a concrete active nuclear weapons program going on right now,” the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told CNN.

Head of UN nuclear agency calls on Bush to ease Iran rhetoric 28 Oct 2007 Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged the Bush administration Sunday to soften its rhetoric against Tehran, even as a prominent Democratic senator said he feared that U.S. military action was drawing “precariously close.” The comments by ElBaradei and Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, the senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, came in response to the regime’s recent tough talk, including President [sic] George W. Bush’s warning of “World War III” if Tehran obtained nuclear arms, and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney’s caution of “serious consequences” for Iran.

Zogby Poll:

52% Support U.S. Military Strike Against Iran

Most see Clinton as the presidential candidate best equipped to deal with Iran, followed by Giuliani and McCain-but many express uncertainty

A majority of likely voters-52%-would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.

The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of “lying” about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised the prospect of “serious consequences” if the U.S. were to discover Iran was attempting to devolop a nuclear weapon. Last week, the Bush administration also announced new sanctions against Iran.

Democrats (63%) are most likely to believe a U.S. military strike against Iran could take place in the relatively near future, but independents (51%) and Republicans (44%) are less likely to agree. Republicans, however, are much more likely to be supportive of a strike (71%), than Democrats (41%) or independents (44%). Younger likely voters are more likely than those who are older to say a strike is likely to happen before the election and women (58%) are more likely than men (48%) to say the same – but there is little difference in support for a U.S. strike against Iran among these groups.

When asked which presidential candidate would be best equipped to deal with Iran – regardless of whether or not they expected the U.S. to attack Iran – 21% would most like to see New York U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the country, while 15% would prefer former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and 14% would want Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain in charge. Another 10% said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would be best equipped to deal with Iran, while Republican Fred Thompson (5%), Democrat John Edwards (4%) and Republican Mitt Romney (3%) were less likely to be viewed as the best leaders to help the U.S. deal with Iran. The telephone poll of 1,028 likely voters nationwide was conducted Oct. 24-27, 2007 and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.

Clinton leads strongly among Democrats on the issue, with 35% saying she is best equipped to deal with Iran, while 17% would prefer Obama and 7% view John Edwards as the best choice. Giuliani is the top choice of Republicans (28%), followed by McCain (21%) and Fred Thompson (9%). One in five independents chose Clinton (21%) over McCain (16%) and Giuliani (11%). Clinton was the top choice among women (24%), while 14% would be more confident with Giuliani in the White House and 11% would prefer McCain. Men slightly prefer McCain (18%) to Clinton (17%) on this issue, while 15% said Giuliani is best equipped to deal with Iran. The survey also shows there is a significant amount of uncertainty if any of the long list of declared candidates would be best equipped to deal the Iran – 19% overall said they weren’t sure which candidate to choose.

There is considerable division about when a strike on Iran should take place – if at all. Twenty-eight percent believe the U.S. should wait to strike until after the next president is in office while 23% would favor a strike before the end of President Bush’s term. Another 29% said the U.S. should not attack Iran, and 20% were unsure. The view that Iran should not be attacked by the U.S. is strongest among Democrats (37%) and independents, but fewer than half as many Republicans (15%) feel the same. But Republicans are also more likely to be uncertain on the issue (28%).

As the possibility the U.S. my strike Iran captures headlines around the world, many have given thought to the possibility of an attack at home. Two in three (68%) believe it is likely that the U.S. will suffer another significant terrorist attack on U.S. soil comparable to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – of those, 27% believe such an attack is very likely. Nearly one in three (31%) believe the next significant attack will occur between one and three years from now, 22% said they believe the next attack is between three and five years away, and 15% said they don’t think the U.S. will be attacked on U.S. soil for at least five years or longer. Just 9% believe a significant terrorist attack will take place in the U.S. before the next presidential election.

For a complete methodological statement on this survey, please visit:

http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.dbm?ID=1226

Please click the link below to view the full news release:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1379

Contact:
Fritz Wenzel
Director of Communications

October 29, 2007 // General // No Comments //

Orwell Rolls In His Grave, featuring MCM – Buy the DVD

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Yet another warning for Bush/Cheney to ignore

Support HR 4463 (with eyes wide open)

Brad is live-blogging Conyers' hearings on John Tanner

Ohio to help overseas voters

"Taxi to the Dark Side"

Loads of horseshit from the corporate press

THE INVISIBLE PRIMARYâ€”INVISIBLE NO LONGER: A First Look at Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Rumsfeld charged with torture in French court

"Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"

Dem candidate thrown out of Dem convention

52% back (pointless) strike against Iran

Orwell Rolls In His Grave, featuring MCM – Buy the DVD

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