Friday, January 20, 2006


Right-wing/Neo-con Political Philosophy:

"Saddle up! Lock and Load!"

You may have noticed that when things aren't going well for the White House, they seem to think they can do a rewrite - reshoot the scene - and no one will notice the change.

John Wayne Movies as policy:

Newt Gingrich called The Sands of Iwo Jima. "the formative movie of my life."

According to John Waynes Western's and War Movies:

Americans/Good-Guys are always Brave and Honest... but they are allowed to break the law and use violence to "get things done".

Foreigners/Bad-Guys are always corrupt and cowardly... so it's alright to bribe them to do things because they're already corrupt and if bribery doesn't work, all that's needed is to "stand up to them and show them we mean business" and they'll run away and cower in a corner.

And there you have the Rights worldview distilled down to its essence. They go at life as though it was the script to a movie. They "don't do nuance" and they think there blunders will have no real consequences.

Of course their policies are based on fantasies so the results are disaster raining down on all our heads. Elderly folks really are suffering without heat and medication. New Orleans isn't a movie set. Those Iraq war casualties won't get up and walk away when someone yells cut.

Some one really should tell the Right that there never was a John Wayne. He was a character played by a guy named Marion... Marion Morrison who avoiding service in WWII for fear it would interrupt the momentum of his career.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Community Values

Do we citizens have the right to set standards for companies that want to do business in their community? Of course we do!
In the past communities set standards of conduct for businesses, it was just less formal...
Ever heard the expression, "run out of town on a rail"?


Trailing in "race" with Wal-Mart

By Danny Westneat - Seattle Times staff columnist

The pernicious thing about Wal-Mart, says Craig Cole, is if we don't change it, it'll change us.

He should know. Cole runs Brown & Cole, a business founded by his grandfather in Lynden 97 years ago that consists of 29 groceries in this state. Cole, 55, can feel this family legacy slipping away. Last year he closed seven stores. The reason, he insists, is simple: He buys health insurance for his workers, and Wal-Mart largely does not.

"I was raised with American values, that good companies take care of workers," Cole says. "Wal-Mart is changing the rules. We're at a crucial point where society needs to decide whether we're going to follow them on this race to the bottom, or not." ...

... Cole buys health insurance for 95 percent of his 1,500 workers, including any who work 20 hours per week. He also insures their families.

Wal-Mart, Cole's direct competitor, insures 45 percent of its workers. A Wal-Mart memo leaked in October revealed that half of the children of its employees are either uninsured or on the government's Medicaid program for the poor.

Who pays when these children go to the doctor? We do, says Cole.

"That's the real problem here -— the public is picking up the tab for what should be Wal-Mart's responsibility," he says. ...

... His company does right by its workers. The way he can see to compete now with Wal-Mart is to do wrong by his employees. To mimic Wal-Mart.

In the end, won't that cost us more?

"Wal-Mart is like a form of social pollution," Cole says. "If we let an oil company dump waste into Puget Sound, it could make cheaper gas. But we don't let them, because it degrades the environment.

"Well, what Wal-Mart is doing degrades American workers. And not just their own."

Democratic Candidate for 42nd LD State Senate

This comment was left on the blog yesterday and I thought it was worth re-posting.
Comments:
I am Jesse Salomon and I am running for the State Senate in the 42nd District (Whatcom County) against Sen. Dale Brandland.

My priorities include increasing clean and renewable energy while stimulating the economy, controlling growth to prevent sprawl, to make sure that as we move into the era of the WASL that we maintain high standards in education but make sure there are alternatives to a single standardized test- alternatives which are culturally sensitive and not biased, and to find long-term solutions to the health care crisis.

I am very excited about stimulating private development of clean energy, so let me outline my ideas:

-Utilities should be required to buy any clean energy not being used by a consumer. In other words, if you put a solar panel on your house, a windmill on your farm, an anerobic digester or any other clean energy mechanism you can invent (and please do!) you can sell any extra energy to the utilites at at a higher than market rate. In addition I will support any tax breaks or credits necessary to get you to invest in your own solar panel etc.

Why do this? Why shoud the government get involved? Pick any of the following reasons (or add your own): It preserves clean air and water and quality of life, it helps decrease our dependence on mid east oil and thus helps national security and energy independence, it keeps money in the community, it feels good to do good...

Sen. Brandland has not served us well. He has sponsored bills to repeal consumer protection laws in order to deny an individual's right to sue. He cast THE DECIDING VOTE against adding sexual orientation to anti-discrimination laws-get off it already!

Anyways, I fear I am going into too much detail, although there are so many other bad things he's done-suffice it to say this the Senate needs another dedicated Democrat, as this is where the progressive bills are bottling up due to the almost even partisan split in that body.

As you know, Dale will have all the money he wants from the big corporations he's gone to bat for. I need money from people like yourselves to gain name recognition and support for my positive platform of clean energy, managing growth and development, and investing in public education and health care for all.

Please make your contribution to

Jesse Salomon for State Senate
P.O. Box 5273
Bellingham, WA 98227-5273

Please include your name, address, occupation, and if over $100.00, your employer's name, city and state.

THANK YOU

Jesse Salomon
Democratic Candidate for 42nd LD State Senate

"You don't like the way we do this job, then come down and do it yourself. I'm outta here."-State Senator Dale Brandland.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Bush's Culture of Crappolla

This morning on 'Larry King Live' Alberto (torture guy) Gonzales lied through his teeth about Al Gore and the Clinton Administration. This evening it's refreshing to see that "AP Reports Facts on White House Smear of Gore".


Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law

By GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
Jan 17, 5:12 PM EST


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the Bush administration's attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die, protecting Oregon's one-of-a-kind assisted-suicide law. ...

...White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "The president remains fully committed to building a culture of life, a culture of life that is built on valuing life at all stages."...
Hey Scotty! I'm not in need of ethics lessons from a pack of pulpit pounding popinjays. I'm not interested in being dictated to by a counterfeit cowboy and his corrupt cronies. I'm committed to building a culture of 'stay out of my' life.

President Gore again.......

i agree with Al.......

Transcript: Al Gore On the Limits of Executive Power
Monday, 16 January 2006
by Al Gore
.......A special counsel should immediately be appointed by
the Attorney General to remedy the obvious conflict of interest that prevents him from investigating what many believe are serious violations of law by the President. We have had a fresh demonstration of how an independent investigation by a special counsel with integrity can rebuild confidence in our system of
justice. Patrick Fitzgerald has, by all accounts, shown neither fear nor favor in pursuing allegations that the Executive Branch has violated other laws. Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of
Americans by the President.
Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing -- especially where it involves the
abuse of Executive Branch authority in the sensitive areas of national security.
Third, both Houses of Congress should hold
comprehensive-and not just superficial-hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And, they should follow the evidence wherever it leads.
Fourth,
the extensive new powers requested by the Executive Branch in its proposal to extend and enlarge
the Patriot Act should, under no circumstances be granted, unless and until there are adequate and enforceable safeguards to protect the Constitution and the rights of the American people against the kinds of abuses that have so recently been revealed.
Fifth, any telecommunications company that has provided the government with access to private information concerning the communications of Americans without a proper warrant should immediately cease and desist their complicity in this apparently
illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens.
full speech transcript
i will let Maria and Patty know....
Senator Murray
Senator Cantwell


listen to the speech if you haven't heard it yet....you will not regret spending the time.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

riverbend's friend Alan

there are no words to express the sadness and the anger for what is being
done as a result of our aggression.....

Thank You for the Music...
When I first heard about the
abduction of Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll a week ago, I
remember feeling regret. It was the same heavy feeling I get every time I hear
of another journalist killed or abducted. The same heavy feeling that settles
upon most Iraqis, I imagine, when they hear of acquaintances suffering under the
current situation.
I read the news as a subtitle on tv. We haven't had an
internet connection for several days so I couldn't really read about the
details. All I knew was that a journalist had been abducted and that her Iraqi
interpreter had been killed. He was shot in cold blood in Al Adil district
earlier this month, when they took Jill Carroll... Theysay he didn't die
immediately. It is said he lived long enough to talk to police and then he died.
I found out very recently that the interpreter killed was a good friend-
Alan, of Alan's Melody, and I've spent the last two days crying.
full post Thursday, January 12,
2006

Representation to the People


It's good news for Whatcom county. Young, progressive candidates who are more interested in representing the people than building a clientele of special interest campaign contributors.
ELECTION
Local lawyer to run for state Senate
Candidate to challenge Brandland

JON GAMBRELL
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD


A lawyer working for Lummi Nation will challenge state Sen. Dale Brandland for his 42nd District seat this fall.

Jesse M. Salomon, 29, filed with the state late last month to run. A former civil prosecutor for the Lummis, Salomon now represents victims of domestic violence in tribal and state courts. He also served as a delegate for Howard Dean at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

"We need younger leadership," said Salomon, a Bellingham resident. "I just feel like the people of my generation have not yet stepped up to the plate."

Salomon believes he'd better represent the county's 42nd District, which includes the northern portion of Bellingham and the entire county west of the Cascades. He wants to provide more push for renewable and clean energy, to protect the environment and end the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

As growth issues continue to dominate concerns around the county, Salomon said he'd do more to empower local governments to make decisions tailored for their communities.

"I don't think it's fair for someone in Olympia to dictate how we grow," he said. "We need to have sovereignty in deciding the way we grow." ...

...Salomon isn't the only young challenger campaigning for the state Legislature in Whatcom County this year. Jasper D. MacSlarrow, a 29-year-old aide to U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, has already filed to run against incumbent Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale. ...
[full article]

deja vu vu voodoo


Think progress supplies these quotes from Bush

President Bush, 1/13/06:

Iran, armed with a nuclear weapon, poses a grave threat to the security of the world.

President Bush 10/7/02:

Tonight I want to take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace…The threat comes from Iraq…It is seeking nuclear weapons.

There's a 'menacing' photo to go with the latest "grave threat to ...":

But WAIT! - It's the menacing N. Korean nuclear facility (photo via bradblog)


Oops! No, it's the menacing Iranian nuclear facility (photo via bradblog)

Hey folks - DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

Saturday, January 14, 2006

this apple is rotten to the core

torture follows this guy wherever he goes.............


Key figure in abuse case invokes shield
General eyed in use of dogs at Abu Ghraib
By Josh White, Washington Post January 12, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Major General Geoffrey D. Miller, a central figure in the US detainee-abuse scandal, this week invoked his right not to incriminate himself in court-martial proceedings against two soldiers accused of using dogs to intimidate captives at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to lawyers involved in the case.
The move by Miller -- who once supervised the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and helped set up operations at Abu Ghraib -- is the first time the general has indicated he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, according to military lawyers.
Harvey Volzer, an attorney for one of the dog handlers, has been seeking to question Miller to determine whether Miller ordered the use of military working dogs to frighten detainees during interrogations at Abu Ghraib. Volzer has argued that the dog handlers were following orders when the animals were used against detainees.
Miller's decision came shortly after Colonel Thomas M. Pappas, the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, accepted immunity from prosecution this week and was ordered to testify at upcoming courts-martial. Pappas, a military intelligence officer, could be asked to detail high-level policies relating to the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
He also could shed light on how abusive tactics emerged, who ordered their use, and their possible connection to officials in Washington, according to lawyers and human rights advocates who have closely followed the case. Pappas has never spoken publicly.
''This could be a big break if Pappas testifies as to why those dogs were used and who ordered the dogs to be used," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. ''It's a steppingstone going up the chain of command, and that's positive. It might demonstrate that it wasn't just a few rotten apples."
full article

the crisco kid

choice point again.....hmmmm....oh well, he did protect us from the naked boobs and it only cost us $8000.

Posted on Tue, Jan. 10, 2006
Ashcroft breaks with tradition by lobbying, has earned $269,000
BY ANDREW ZAJAC
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - Less than three months after registering as a lobbyist, former Attorney General John Ashcroft has banked at least $269,000 from just four clients and appears to be developing a practice centered on firms that want to capitalize on a government demand for homeland security technology that boomed under sometimes controversial policies he promoted while in office
............During a frequently contentious four years as attorney general, Ashcroft championed a series of measures, including the USA Patriot Act, which gave police and intelligence authorities greater latitude to conduct secret surveillance and gather information on people even if they were not alleged to be terrorists.
Now, Ashcroft could sign up to advocate for interests "who are arguably making it possible for the government to infringe on our privacy," said Garrett. "That will give people more pause."One of the world's biggest software companies, Oracle makes large databases, including some used by intelligence services, and plans to use Ashcroft as a consultant for business opportunities on homeland security issues, according to a company spokesman.
As attorney general, Ashcroft sued Oracle in 2004 to try to block an earlier acquisition by the company.
Ashcroft's clients also include ChoicePoint, a data broker that sells credit reports and other personal information to the FBI and other federal agencies, and LTU Technologies Inc., a Washington and Paris-based maker of software for analyzing large batches of video and other visual images.
full article

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Unitary Executive = Dictator

The neo-con-nerds might torture legal language and cook up new phrases, but a Dictator by any other name would still stink to high heaven!

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Main Entry: dic·ta·tor
Pronunciation: 'dik-"tA-t&r, dik-'
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, from dictare
1 a : a person granted absolute emergency power; especially : one appointed by the senate of ancient Rome b : one holding complete autocratic control c : one ruling absolutely and often oppressively



The Unitary Executive: Is The Doctrine Behind the Bush Presidency Consistent with a Democratic State?
By JENNIFER VAN BERGEN

---- Monday, Jan. 09, 2006

When President Bush signed the new law, sponsored by Senator McCain, restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees, he also issued a Presidential signing statement. That statement asserted that his power as Commander-in-Chief gives him the authority to bypass the very law he had just signed.

This news came fast on the heels of Bush's shocking admission that, since 2002, he has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant, in flagrant violation of applicable federal law.

And before that, Bush declared he had the unilateral authority to ignore the Geneva Conventions and to indefinitely detain without due process both immigrants and citizens as enemy combatants.

All these declarations echo the refrain Bush has been asserting from the outset of his presidency. That refrain is simple: Presidential power must be unilateral, and unchecked. ...


The Unitary Executive Doctrine Violates the Separation of Powers

As Findlaw columnist Edward Lazarus recently showed, the President does not have unlimited executive authority, not even as Commander-in-Chief of the military. Our government was purposely created with power split between three branches, not concentrated in one. ...
...

Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense:

In America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.

The unitary executive doctrine conflicts with Paine's principle - one that is fundamental to our constitutional system. If Bush can ignore or evade laws, then the law is no longer king. Americans need to decide whether we are still a country of laws - and if we are, we need to decide whether a President who has determined to ignore or evade the law has not acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government.

(full article)

Wake up, stand up, shout "Down with the Tyrant", throw out the Usurper!
Are you Americans or mice?

scalito nomination

from my precinct blog....

the Alito nomination to the supreme court will threaten our rights, strengthen the executive branch and support corporations for years to come.....our environment, privacy rights and the ability to create a society we can all live well in will suffer. he is part of a group of people who want to take us back to the days of the "robber barens"....most of us will not do so well in those circumstances....let our senators know how you feel..... http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
let the democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee know they did a good job today....and that we must win this fight.http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm
did Lindsey Graham's words cause or signal alitos wife to cry?????
thanks for that one Sam.......

Rectal Journalism

David Sirota has got it right! An article well worth reading [I hate the "must read" label] And yet; you really ought to read this.

The Rise of Rectal Journalism

A lot has alreay been written about Joe Klein's latest column - a true foray into fantasy. The man is the eitomy of a journalist who is so self-absorbed, so obsessed with himself, or so lazy that he quite literally thinks he can just make things up. But sadly, Klein epitomzes a new brand of journalism sweeping the nation. It's what I call Rectal Journalism because its based on reporters and pundits simply pulling stuff right out of their ass and peddling it as fact, when in fact it is anything but. ...(more)

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Internal Republican Service?

So the working poor are automatically criminals in the eyes of the IRS?
And they don't 'deserve' due process?
Is this more politicizing of the Federal Government?
Are IRS policies now based on Rightwing philosophy instead of the law?



IRS held up refunds of 120,000

By Albert B. Crenshaw

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -— Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service froze more than 120,000 taxpayers' refunds last year on suspicion of fraud without notifying the taxpayers or giving them a chance to respond, the federal National Taxpayer Advocate said in a report released Tuesday.

In fact, based on data from fiscal 2004, the advocate estimated that as many as 1.6 million refunds have been frozen by the IRS' Criminal Investigation (CI) division over five years without letting taxpayers know they were under "suspicion of criminality or giving the taxpayers an opportunity to provide documentation to support their refund claims."

"At a minimum, this procedure constitutes an extraordinary violation of fundamental taxpayer rights and fairness. In our view, it may also constitute a violation of due process of law," said Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in her annual report to lawmakers on problem areas in tax administration. ...

... But a TAS study of some of the cases brought to it by complaining taxpayers found that in 66 percent there was no evidence of current-year fraud and that 80 percent of these taxpayers ultimately received either a full refund or partial refund of the amount they had originally claimed.

The median adjusted gross income of taxpayers who were found to have committed "no fraud" was $13,330 and the median income of those who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit was $11,956. The median refund received was $3,685, Olson said. ... (full article)


Tuesday, January 10, 2006

WA GOP Dumb Dumber Dumbo

With the WA State legislature coming into session,
Doug Ericksen has a lame idea


... On the environmental front, Rep. Doug Ericksen wants to propose a bill allowing owners of cars more than 15 years old to pay no sales tax when buying a new car, if they destroy their old car. The bill, which requires the cars to be licensed and in running condition in the last two years, will help limit air pollution while spurring auto sales, Ericksen believes.

"The problem with pollution is old cars. We need to get old cars off of the freeway," said Ericksen, R-Ferndale. "There is a whole lot of environmentalism out there that isn't incentive-based. This tax exemption gives a massive bang for its buck." ... (SOURCE:)

Q. Who owns old cars?
A. People who love their car and people who are barely scraping by.

Q. Are people who love their car or people who are barely scraping by likely to buy a brand new car?
A. Not very.

So who could benefit from Ericksen's proposal? Well... I suppose one of those pseudo-libertarian greed-heads could spend an afternoon with the free classifieds and find something like this:


[87 Nissan Sentra, Auto, runs, but needs work, 2dr $300 OBO]


And use it for the tax incentive to buy this:


2006 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class CL65 AMG Coupe
Gas Mileage: 13 mpg city / 20 mpg hwy
Invoice Price: $167,028
(sales tax $14,364.41)

If it were fixed up, that '87 Sentra would get MPG (city) 28 / MPG (highway) 35, but according to Ericksen it would be better to crush it and put a car on the road that gets less than half the city mpg. (and ding state revenue $14k in the process)

It doesn't sound like a great solution to air pollution... But maybe Ericksen just wanted to propose something to "spurring auto sales" as an early Valentine to his auto-dealer and insurance company campaign contributors.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

German's say Guantanamo must go

SPIEGEL Magazine
January 7, 2006
----
TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS

Merkel Calls for Closure of Guantanamo

In an interview, Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, says she will plead with United States President George W. Bush to close the controversial Guantanamo prison camp, where some suspects have been held without trial since the start of the war on terror. ...
It should get exciting when Merkel goes toe to toe with Bush.

Is the IRS now a political tool?


Yesterday we heard: IRS tracked taxpayers’ political affiliation

Today, we hear:

IRS accused of violating order

By Peter Lewis - Seattle Times staff reporter

The Internal Revenue Service has stopped providing detailed statistics to a tax expert, violating a court order she obtained 30 years ago, according to a motion filed in Seattle federal court.

Susan B. Long, a Syracuse University professor and co-director of a data-research group called Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), asserts that since 2004, the IRS has knowingly failed to comply with a 1976 consent decree that it admits it remains bound by. ...

... Long said the IRS' changed attitude toward compliance corresponds with a change at the top in 2003, when Mark W. Everson, then a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, succeeded Charles O. Rossotti as IRS commissioner.

Commissioners serve five-year terms.

Long said Rossotti "believed in transparency" but with Everson at the helm, the agency "just started shutting down." ...

You've just got to wonder what's up with the IRS since Mark W. Everson took over. Remember just before the 2004 election when the IRS decided to investigate the NAACP? [The IRS vs. the NAACP] And yet, overt political speeches by rightwing Religious figures generated no similar investigations [ NAACP audit raises suspicion]

There's no proof of political skull duggery, so far. And yet, I smell a rat and we should all be watching what the IRS is up to.



Friday, January 06, 2006

Spy's like Them


IRS tracked taxpayers’ political affiliation

The News Tribune
Last updated: January 6th, 2006 06:13 AM (PST)

WASHINGTON – As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

IRS officials acknowledged that party affiliation information was routinely collected by a vendor for several months. They told the vendor last month to screen the information out. ...

... Murray said she learned about the problem from the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelly. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.

“This agency should not have that type of information,” Murray said in a telephone interview from Seattle. “No one should question whether they are being audited because of party affiliation." ...

... “We think Congress should suspend IRS plans to use private collections agencies until these questions have been resolved,” she said.

According to Murray’s office, the 20 states in which the IRS collected party affiliation information were Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. [ full article ]




WA GOP - dumb dumb dumbo


GOP lawmakers wrong about estate tax effect on farms

By CHRIS McGANN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

OLYMPIA -- Republican leaders vowed Thursday to protect family farms from the ravages of Washington's estate tax as they set their sights on killing the so-called death tax.

But they overlooked one important detail -- farms are exempt from the estate tax. ...

Way to go (R)'s... Grandstanding instead of really working for your constituents.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Democracy's on the march

Snohomish County switching to mail-in elections

By Christopher Schwarzen - Times Snohomish County Bureau

The new Democratic majority on the Snohomish County Council wasted little time in approving a switch to all-mail elections.

The council approved the measure Wednesday with a 3-2 vote along party lines. Last year's Republican-led council repeatedly voted against making the change. ...


... Republicans have said they fear there is potential for mail fraud and believe a voter should have the right to choose whether to vote by mail or at the polls. ... (more)


Well golly gee, the Republicans are [once again] "worried" about voter fraud. Even though they never can point out any actual cases of fraud. Remember the outlandish claims WA GOP chairman Vance made during the 2004 Governors election recount? And then it turned out there were only a couple of fraudulent votes... and they were for Rossi!

What's really happening is that the Democrats are moving to insure honest verifiable elections... and the Republicans don't like that.

Remember Snohomish county's strange (electronic) election results in 2004?



"the chances that above 2/3 of the vote that is paper balloting would show a Democratic lead , while the remaining 1/3 of the vote on touch screens would show a Republican lead resulting in an overall Republican win in Snohomish county as a result of voters randomly choosing whether to vote by paper ballot or by touch screen is one in 1,000 trillion!"

EVIDENCE OF ELECTION IRREGULARITIES IN
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, WASHINGTON
GENERAL ELECTION, 2004


By Paul R. Lehto, Attorney at Law
And
Jeffrey Hoffman, Ph.D., Northern Michigan University


January 6 20054

"Investigative" Tribnet reporter David SeagoÂ’s 8/18/04 email suggesting language to the Snohomish County auditor for an editorial about security issues on touch screen voting systems, reflecting a nonchalant attitude about election security: "How about: "Screw the loonies who think hackers will steal your votes. Our system works good."

INTRODUCTION
Nationally, the subject of electronic and touch screen voting has been the subject of vigorous discussion about the election security risks they present.5 Because the operating systems of these electronic voting systems are claimed to be proprietary trade secrets, in effect the counting of electronic ballots takes place in electronic "rooms" where the public is never allowed to observe, even though most state statutes grant observers the right to observe all aspects of the vote counting process. Because this lack of security was widely publicized along with the status of the various battleground states, no one supporting Kerry or Bush needed an order from on high or a sign held up by Tim Russert of Meet the Press to know what the candidate needed (votes), in what states he needed them, and in what amounts they were needed. A seeming replay of the 2000 election debacle, including exit polling discrepancies and widespread voting problems has, without any substantial media coverage, led to fully 20% of the American public being convinced the election lacked legitimacy, according to one poll. See Keith OlbermannÂ’s MSNBC blog. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240

The Problem Presented
Washington state recently had a historically close gubernatorial election, in which Democrat Christine Gregoire trailed Republican Dino Rossi by only 42 votes statewide after a machine recount, and a hand recount was then requested by Gregoire and the Democrats. In normally Democratic Snohomish County, Kerry had easily won the county (though the race against Bush was much narrower in election day touch screen voting), but in the governorÂ’s race, Republican Rossi defeated Gregoire in Snohomish County by over 6000 votes thanks to an election day touch screen landslide of over 8000 votes.

Thanks to mathematician Arlene Ash, we calculate that the chances that above 2/3 of the vote that is paper balloting would show a Democratic lead of 97044 to 95228 votes, while the remaining 1/3 of the vote on touch screens would show a Republican lead of almost 5% (50,400 Republican to 42,145 Democratic) resulting in an overall Republican win of over 6000 votes in Snohomish county as a result of voters randomly choosing whether to vote by paper ballot or by touch screen is one in 1,000 trillion! A true impossibility. ...

i love this song!

scroll down to "why me george?" and have a listen....
bluecanyonproductions

Hmmmm

they drug test pilots, professional sports player, and just about all of us for just about any crappy job....why are we not drug testing our leadership?????

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

more brownie

another bush appointee .....the fox is guarding the henhouse.....mine safety means keeping maximum corporate profits flowing......

Richard Who?

While Foulke is at least fairly well known in the workplace safety and health community (especially in Republican circles), Stickler's appointment, on the other hand, was met by a collective "Huh?" by both labor and management.Stickler has spent his career in the mining industry, mostly as a mine manager, and as Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety from 1997 to 2003. Stickler was head of the Bureau during the 2002 Quecreek Mine flood that trapped 9 miners who were eventually rescued.United Mineworkers spokesman Phil Smith emphasized the need for good communication between MSHA and the UMWA. Communication has been good between the UMWA and current acting Assistant Secretary David Dye, although they often don't see eye to eye. Smith urged the Senate to make sure that MSHA fulfills its mandate as a strong watchdog, especially with the current pressures for increased production and the retirement of experienced miners with inexperienced miners now doing more of the work.Some mine officials weren't quite as diplomatic, wondering where the hell they found this guy. Those who know him aren't expecting aggressive enforcement and express concern that he had spent two years working for a subsidiary of Massey Energy, which has been battling with the Mineworkers for years.
full article

and this

Mine Inspectors Questioned Administration’s Commitment To Mine Safety
...........The Labor Department denies that budget cuts and staff reductions under President Bush have hindered the ability of the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration to ensure coal-mine safety. But Jack Spadaro, a former mine safety investigator, claims that mine inspectors raised concerns before Sago about the disastrous consequences that might result from the Labor Department’s unwillingness to enforce safety regulations:
Jack Spadaro, former director of the MSHA National Mine Safety Academy, said inspectors told him privately that Labor Department opposition to vigorous safety regulation has hindered their work.
“Two weeks before this explosion, I was told by an inspector, ‘Jack, there’s going to be another disaster because we can’t do our jobs,’ ” he said in an interview.
full article

Monday, January 02, 2006


Is W losing the War on Weeds?




Bush begins year with political hangover



... GEORGE BUSH: As you can probably see, I was injured myself - not here at the hospital, but in combat with a... with a cedar. I eventually won. ...


BUT SERIOUSLY

From the NYT WeekInReview

... Orin S. Kerr, an associate professor of law at George Washington University and a former trial lawyer for computer crime cases in the Justice Department, said it was too soon to tell about the impact of the N.S.A. disclosures.

"There's a mixed set of reactions," Mr. Kerr said. "Some people think it's bad because there was a privacy violation. Some people think it's a good thing, even though it may be illegal. They're all over the map."

But a poll conducted for Mr. Ponemon last month may show that people hold different views on commercial and government privacy issues. Conducted after The New York Times revealed the N.S.A. surveillance, it suggested great concern. Of those polled, 88 percent expressed concern, and 54 percent said they were "very concerned," he said.

"It was, 'Wow,' " Mr. Ponemon said. The 88 percent figure was more than twice the level of concern of past studies he had seen of public attitudes toward commercial privacy breaches.

The reaction to the president's program could be cumulative, said Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia who speaks out on civil liberties issues in alliance with conservative libertarian groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. When the privacy violations on the business side and those on the government side are taken into account, he said, "you get a truly frightening picture." ...

What's important, is the un-Constitutionally illegal spying on Americans, not who leaked it to the press.

The leaker is a HERO!

Bush and his pseudo-legal advisers are the CRIMINALS!

Sunday, January 01, 2006

The War on Weeds

Is that the smell of Wictory?

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

Bush Conscripts Aides in Tireless Pursuit of Clearing Ground


By Lisa Rein - Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page A03

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

If the soil is moist enough, he will light a match and burn the wood. ...

... As much as it is a metaphor for presidential vigor, Bush's preoccupation with wielding his chain saw has become fodder for bloggers and other critics who complain that he is isolated and disengaged. ...

Friday, December 30, 2005

Bush Spying in Context


Bush defends spying without warrant tactic

TONI LOCY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration formally defended its domestic spying program in a letter to Congress late Thursday saying the nation's security outweighs privacy concerns of individuals caught up in the surveillance.

In a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Justice Department said President Bush authorized electronic surveillance without first obtaining a warrant in an effort to thwart terrorist acts against the United States. ...



No one above the law?
Donald A. Lykkebak

December 25, 2005

"They that can give up esssential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Recent revelation that President Bush provided personal authorization to bypass judicial review of electronic eavesdropping and wiretaps of U.S. citizens is alarming. It is also illegal. ...

... It is doubtful we will ever know the extent of this fishing expedition. Nor will we discover which of our neighbors were targets for this invasion of privacy. If this information were held up to public scrutiny, we may learn the worst about our government. Was your contribution to an Islamic charity sufficient to catch their attention? Perhaps, you may have criticized the candor, motive or methods of the government or its leaders. Maybe it was simply your critical letter to the editor that sparked government interest in you.

The president and his aides say, "Trust me." Is this still good enough? We trusted them when they said there were good reasons for war in Iraq. Those arguments proved to be "faulty intelligence" or outright lies. The president now says he was mistaken about WMD. To what end? Current events suggest that a deterioration of our moral resolve as a nation may be a less obvious, but equally troubling consequence. CIA torture of prisoners, rendition, secret prisons and now warrantless spying on U.S. citizens within in our own borders are all apparent consequences.

Is it still true that in our country no one is above the law?

There must be no exceptions. We are asked to trade our privacy and our freedom from warrantless snooping and exchange it for promises of security.

Remember Benjamin Franklin. His warning is prophetic. We may be left with neither liberty nor safety.


You might read that and say "Lose our liberty? It couldn't happen here." I suggest you read the following articles and then see if you can still say "it couldn't happen here".


STATE DEPARTMENT OPENS FILES ON ARGENTINA'S DIRTY WAR

... "The documents provide clues to the fate of 'disappeared' citizens in Argentina by an unchecked security apparatus, and tell the story of a massive and indiscriminate counterinsurgency campaign carried out by the military dictatorship targeting real or imagined subversives including thousands of labor leaders, workers, clergymen, human rights advocates, scientists, doctors, and political party leaders" said Carlos Osorio, director of the National Security Archive's Argentina Documentation Project. ...


Dirty War

Project Disappeared


ACLU: Protesters placed in terror files

By ANSLEE WILLETT [The Gazette - Colorado Springs, CO]
December 09, 2005

The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday.

The Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act.

ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force wastes resources generating files on "nonviolent protest."

"These documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked ‘counterterrorism,’" he said.

"This kind of surveillance of First Amendment activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI file." ...




The Terror of Our Ways
Conflating environmentalists and terrorists is all the rage
By Michael J. Kavanagh

Just Joshin'
Electric-car driver was not an eco-terrorist, FBI admits

Miami Police Take New Tack to Deter Terrorists,
Staging Random Shows of Force at Hotels, Banks
By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer

America's enemy within

Armed checkpoints, embedded reporters in flak jackets,
brutal suppression of peaceful demonstrators. Baghdad? No, Miami
Naomi Klein - Guardian
Wednesday November 26, 2003

And you don't even have to be a protester


Next Stop: Big Brother
... One morning in late September 2005, Deb was riding the public bus to work. She was minding her own business, reading a book and planning for work, when a security guard got on this public bus and demanded that every passenger show their ID. Deb, having done nothing wrong, declined. The guard called in federal cops, and she was arrested and charged with federal criminal misdemeanors after refusing to show ID on demand. ...



In "Fascism Anyone?," Laurence Britt identifies 14 characteristics common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 "identifying characteristics of fascism."

Wake up and smell the fascism

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Depleted(not)Uranium=Genocide

the pain and suffering ahead is staggering. not only have we rendered Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan uninhabitable, we are poisioning our troops, their loved ones and future children. this is has been done in our name since Gulf War I and continues....tons of this WMD have been spread on our planet, in our name. why do they hate us??????

Heads roll at Veterans Administration
Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed
by Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner

Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.
Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.
Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”
Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”
He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.
full article

Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets
A death sentence here and abroad
by Leuren Moret
At an April press conference, a group of New York Army National Guard vets raised their hands when asked if they have health problems. The soldiers, all from the 442nd Military Police Company, are complaining of headaches and fatigue after what they think is exposure to depleted uranium during their recent tour in Iraq.Photo: www.americanfreepress.net
“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” - Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”
Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation.
full article

(At an April press conference, a group of New York Army National Guard vets raised their hands when asked if they have health problems. The soldiers, all from the 442nd Military Police Company, are complaining of headaches and fatigue after what they think is exposure to depleted uranium during their recent tour in Iraq.Photo: www.americanfreepress.net)

ACLU Ad: No President Is Above the Law

Still - Out of Touch

It never ceases to amaze me that so many Americans are so out of touch with reality.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- More than four years after the
attacks of September 11, 2001, many U.S. adults still believe some of the
justifications for the invasion of Iraq, which have now been discredited,
according to a new Harris Poll. For example:

-- Forty-one percent (41%) of U.S. adults believe that Saddam Hussein had
"strong links to Al Qaeda."
-- Twenty-two percent (22%) of adults believe that Saddam Hussein "helped
plan and support the hijackers who attacked the United States on
September 11."
-- Twenty-six percent (26%) of adults believe that Iraq "had weapons of
mass destruction when the U.S. invaded."
-- Twenty-four percent (24%) of all adults believe that "several of the
hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11 were Iraqis."
But on a more hopeful note;

ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Dec. 15-18, 2005. N=1,003 adults nationwide. Results below are among registered voters. Fieldwork by TNS.






.


"If the election for the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006 were being held today, would you vote for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate in your congressional district?" If other/unsure: "Would you lean toward the Democratic candidate or toward the Republican candidate?" Options rotated






.




Republican Democrat Neither/
Other
(vol.)
Unsure Won't
Vote (vol.)


% % % % %

12/15-18/05

41 51 4 4 1

I'm guessing that the 41% who think 'Saddam had "strong links to Al Qaeda"' are the same 41% that would vote for a Republican candidate... what do you think?

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

State Politics - WA 42nd District

Washington State House of Representatives
42nd LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Jasper MacSlarrow (D) is challenging Doug Ericksen (R)

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Bush - screwing up the war on terror



Egged on by his bat-shit crazy neo-con cronies, Bush's arrogant over-reaching spying policies hasn't caught any terrorists but has lost him the trust of the American people.

Some fear eavesdropping could undermine work of spy agency

By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay - Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The White House decision to order surveillance of international phone calls by U.S. citizens without a warrant violated longstanding practices and could undermine a key U.S. intelligence agency that's critical in the struggle against terrorists, former senior intelligence officials and other experts said this week.

The super-secret National Security Agency, which eavesdropped on the Soviet Union's leaders and scored other intelligence coups during the Cold War, has spent three decades recovering from domestic spying scandals in the 1970s.

Now, with its electronic ears and vast computer banks turned primarily to intercepting suspecting terrorists, the officials said they fear that the NSA once again will bear the brunt of congressional scrutiny and public outrage, complicating its mission.

"The damage it's done to NSA's reputation is almost irreversible in my view," said a longtime top intelligence official with intimate knowledge of the agency's workings.

Those concerns are part of a broader backlash in the intelligence community against some of the Bush administration's tactics in the war on terror. ...(more)


Speedier trial?

It seems Tom DeLay thinks he's entitled to special rights... ain't that a hoot!
DeLay takes case to state's highest criminal court

By LIZ AUSTIN - The Associated Press

AUSTIN -- In a last-ditch effort to secure a speedy trial, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's attorneys asked the state's highest criminal court Friday to dismiss the charges against him or order a lower court to try him immediately.

DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin took the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals a day after a lower appeals court denied his request to send the case back to the trial court or expedite it through the appeals process.

DeLay was forced to step aside as House majority leader after he was indicted on money-laundering and conspiracy charges in September. He denies wrongdoing and has been pressing for a quick resolution to his case so he can regain his post before his colleagues call for new leadership elections.

His case was put on hold, however, when prosecutors appealed a judge's partial dismissal of the charges. ...(more)


Friday, December 23, 2005

A New Year is on the way


In Generalissimo Georgie's neo-America; he says his power eclipses the Bill of Rights, the Congress and the Supreme Court.


In Generalissimo Georgie's neo-America; he says Citizens can be spied on without warrant, imprisoned without charges, tortured and tried using secret evidence.




But
WE THE PEOPLE say, cut out the BU(LL)SH(IT)!

Evolution takes science honours



By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter

Research into how evolution works has been named top science achievement of 2005, a year that also saw fierce debate erupt over "intelligent design".

The prestigious US journal Science publishes its top 10 list of major endeavours at the end of each year.

The number one spot was awarded jointly to several studies that illuminated the intricate workings of evolution.

The announcement comes in the same week that a US court banned the teaching of intelligent design in classrooms. ...(more)


Thursday, December 22, 2005

Tom sets the record straight

as the white house and their shills scramble to rewrite history, muddy the issue and quiet the masses as they shread the constitution.....

Power We Didn't Grant
By Tom Daschle
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A21
In the face of mounting questions about news stories saying that President Bush approved a program to wiretap American citizens without getting warrants, the White House argues that Congress granted it authority for such surveillance in the 2001 legislation authorizing the use of force against al Qaeda. On Tuesday, Vice President Cheney said the president "was granted authority by the Congress to use all means necessary to take on the terrorists, and that's what we've done."
As Senate majority leader at the time, I helped negotiate that law with the White House counsel's office over two harried days. I can state categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving authority to the president for such wiretaps. I am also confident that the 98 senators who voted in favor of authorization of force against al Qaeda did not believe that they were also voting for warrantless domestic surveillance.
full article

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

back away from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge..

good news today.....dems and some repubs are stepping up......

Senate Blocks Alaska Refuge Drilling
By H. JOSEF HEBERTThe Associated PressWednesday, December 21, 2005; 2:29 PM
WASHINGTON -- The Senate blocked an attempt to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling Wednesday, foiling an attempt by drilling backers to force the measure through Congress as part of a must-have defense spending bill.
It was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, one of the Senate's most powerful members, who had given senators a choice to support the Alaska drilling measure, or risk the political fallout of voting against money for American troops and for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
full article



thank you Senator Cantwell for clarity and strong leadership on this one!!!!

...........Once again, we commend Senator Cantwell for her tremendous leadership on this very important issue. It is imperative that we prohibit drilling or development of any sort in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, of the world's greatest untouched wildernesses. We will gain nothing from opening up the Refuge to drilling - and we will lose a lot. There isn't even a tradeoff. This is without a doubt, an attempt to sell out one of America's national treasures to greedy oil companies.
full article

many questions remain about the oil to be recovered and i've heard it said because of the quality of the oil there it would go to Asia.....sort of eliminating the argument that we could be rescued from our appalling over consumption.....

Arctic Refuge: How Much Oil? Both Sides On Drilling Issue Tout Estimates, But Volume, Quality Of Resources UnclearDecember 21, 2005
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Bush calls it the most promising source of untapped oil in America and the key to greater energy independence. But how much oil is there in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Nobody really knows for certain.
full article

dicked again.....

dick grinch gives the American people a christmas to remember.....one finger victory salute to the needy, welfare to the greedy....

UPDATE 1-Cheney breaks Senate tie to pass US budget bill
Wed Dec 21, 2005 12:26 PM ET
........It's an attack on the middle class and those in greatest need on behalf of lobbyists for the powerful," Reid said.
Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of five Republicans who opposed the bill, called it a "a cynical piece of legislation that punishes our most vulnerable citizens."
full article

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

who cares about our security????

yo sheeple!!! if you're counting on the bush crime family to keep you safe, wake up!!! these people don't give a damn about us......where will the "anthrax" turn up next now that the "patriot" act needs renewal???...Hmmmmmm...........

MISSING RADIOACTIVE VIALS COULD PRESENT A DANGER
Officials were still searching for two vials of radioactive material that went missing earlier this month as they were being shipped by truck from Albuquerque to Kilgore, a press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services said Monday night.
full article

and then this......

Explosives missing from site again
Updated 2:45 p.m. In the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, one might assume bomb-making materials would be under the tightest possible security.
In fact, they sit unattended in the New Mexico desert, guarded by little more than lock and key.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White says he doesn't understand it.
"You have to question the logic behind federal regulations that prohibited you from carrying nail clippers onto an airplane, but allow you to store high-grade explosives in a poorly protected site in the middle of nowhere," White said.
full article

and then they have the nerve to tell us they are circumventing the law and our civil liberties for our security.......JEZ!!!!!

Bush bypassed compliant court on wiretapping
Warrants rarely denied
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff December 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The court that authorizes wiretaps on terrorism suspects had not rejected a government request for a warrant in its 22-year existence to 2001, when President Bush issued an order allowing agents to wiretap citizens without judicial approval.
full article

how many "evil-doers" arrested so far????????? what are they hiding???

What's wrong with this picture?

Everett Herald - Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2005

All-mail balloting voted down - for now
Democrats say they will revisit the issue once they have a majority in January.

By Jeff Switzer
Herald Writer

A pitch to switch to all-mail elections was rejected by Snohomish County Council Republicans on Monday, but Democrats vowed to revisit the issue in January when they are in the majority. ...

... GOP members of the council forced a vote on the proposed all-mail legislation during their morning meeting, yanking it from Democrat Dave Gossett's afternoon operations committee.

"I'm not willing to disenfranchise 40 percent of the voters," Koster said. Voting is a precious right and mail-in ballots should be the exception, not the rule, he said.

The trend is going the other way, however.

Thirty-two of the state's 39 counties have switched to all-mail elections since the state Legislature relaxed rules this spring.

Nelson criticized mail voting as a source of fraud. He said 1,779 mail ballots were rejected during the general election.

A report shows that of those ballots, 1,176 were rejected because they were postmarked too late. ... (full article)


Isn't it interesting how desperately the Republicans want to keep their black-box voting machines. WA state Republicans have become knee-jerk slanderers... They make a habit of screaming voter fraud but never have a single real case to point to.

Obviously the electronic voting machines magical qualities are what attract the Republicans.


Evidence Of Election Irregularities
In Snohomish County, Washington, General Election, 2004


Absentee ballots composing 2/3 of the total ballots showed a Democratic lead of 97044 to 95228 votes, while the remaining 1/3 of the votes, on touch screens, showed a Republican lead of almost 5% (50,400 Republican to 42,145 Democratic).

Vote-switching and machines freezing up occurred in 58 polling locations out of approximately 148 total. There is a high correlation between the problem machines — as reported by KING5 news — and the Republican percentages the machines reported.

Statistical analysis of machines that recently had their CPUs repaired shows a propensity for Republican voting that is present but weak on the individual level but strong at the polling location where the machines were placed.

The average of the 58 polling places reporting vote switching, freeze-ups, or repairs within two weeks of the election was 11.58% more favorable to Republican Dino Rossi than absentee voters did, and averaged 10.8% more votes than Gregoire on election day, while RossiÂ’s overall spread among all electronic voters at all polling locations was under 5%.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Culture of corruption, greed and abuse of power

just when you think the corporatists have topped it, they go ya one more.....these arrogant, cruel bullies will not stop until they are stopped.
wake up sheeple!! they've taken over our assets and are using them to steal other people's assets............

How the Media Is "Authorizing" The Abuse of Government Power

The story of President Bush deliberately breaking the law to create a domestic spy operation is a lot of different things: it is a tale of power abuse, arrogance, and contempt for the law by an out-of-control president. But it is also a story of how today's major media behaves with near total deference to power and its own profit motive. What we are watching, even in the seemingly small details of the coverage, is the media's complicity in helping estsablish a quasi-legal framework for what was a clearly illegal abuse of government power. Put another way, we are watching the media being used as a tool of state power in overriding the very laws that are supposed to confine state power and protect American citizens.
full article

Thursday, December 15, 2005

So what the H*%% does that mean?

Yesterday in a Seattle Times article about a "poor taste" item

offered for sale on the WA state Democrats website, State Rep. Doug Ericksen was quotes as saying:

State Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Bellingham, put out a news release Tuesday criticizing the Democrats for posting what he described as an "anti-Christian" symbol.

"It's just amazing that they have people sitting in their office who think that way," Ericksen said. "You would never see anything on a Republican Web site demeaning Judaism or the Islamic faith."

Articles in the Bellingham Herald and on the KGW-TV website cut it down to: "State Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Bellingham, called it an "anti-Christian" symbol."

Now I just gotta ask, what the hell is Doug saying?
Firstly, He's described something as "anti-Christian" that would more fittingly be called anti-pompous hypocrite. But that's not unexpected...

The puzzler is switching religions in mid-put-down: ["You would never see anything on a Republican Web site demeaning Judaism or the Islamic faith."].... Is he intimating that the Republican Party IS the Christian Party? How did Muslims and Jews get mixed up in this flap?

P.S. I see that WorldNutDaily has a garbled article about this 'sticker stink'.