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Update, 10/10/08 – Thanks to subscribing contributor RB, whose $10 payment this morning bring our running total to $2714.63 against our goal of $5,000! Repeating the Knapp plan for ending this fundraiser before the election: Reach $3,000 by this coming Monday morning (we’re less than $300 away!), then $1,000 more each week for two weeks. Sweetener: Get this fundraiser over by Election Day, and we’ll postpone the next one, and/or find ways to make it less intrusive - TLK —– Dear readers, Earlier this year, I told you that RRND/FND would be moving to a “twice-a-year” fundraising schedule — and we’re keeping our word. We’ve even waited almost a month past mid-year to start our first 2008 drive. But now it’s time. The goal is $5,000, and we’ll keep plugging until we reach it (even if that means extending into our year-end fundraiser, which we’d certainly prefer not to do!). You can support “the freedom movement’s daily newspaper” (and our offshoot publications — 2nd Amendment News Digest, Liberty Action News Digest and Progressive News Digest) in any of several ways: One-Time Payments Online
Become a Subscribing Contributor! [Note: All subscription payments received during the fundraiser will be credited toward its total]
Other Options If you prefer to support RRND/FND through the International Society for Individual Liberty, to target your contribution to this project. Please drop me a line so that I can thank you and add your contribution to our total (ISIL doesn’t send us a daily report). If you’d like to send a check, money order, cash or other valuable thing via US Snail, again, write me so I can send you the address and instructions.
And Now For Something Completely Different Would you like to see NO MORE RRND/FND fundraisers for nearly a year? So would we … so here’s a “side bet.” Up-front disclaimer: This mid-year fundraiser WILL continue until the goal is met, even if that’s some time next year (hopefully it will be some time next month!). But, we’re running a simultaneous “contingent pledge drive” through Fundable.Com to raise ANOTHER $5k … and if we make it, our next fundraiser won’t be until at least mid-2009. It’s a simple concept: You pledge the amount of money you’re willing to contribute to that second $5k. If we raise $5k in pledges like yours, you pay. If we don’t, you don’t. That simple. Click here to make your pledge. We didn’t make the Fundable.Com goal … but we’ll set a new project of this type up Real Soon Now. Yours in liberty, | |
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“Tennessee prison officials have charged a Chattanooga woman with smuggling two loaded handguns into a state prison at Wartburg. The guns were hidden in a box filled with board games and books. Twenty-seven-year-old Tiara Monique Ward is being held at the Morgan County Jail. Ward’s bond was reduced from $100,000 to $25,000 at a Thursday hearing where a public defender was appointed to represent her. A Department of Correction news release issued Thursday says investigators discovered the two weapons in a package delivered to the Morgan County Correctional Complex on Sept. 17.” [editor’s note: OK, let’s review … We already know the “authorities” cannot keep “illegal drugs” out of prisons (and thus should cease and desist trying to keep them out of general society?); now they can barely even keep GUNS out of the hands of incarcerated criminals? - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/42542k | |
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“A gardener who fenced off his allotment with barbed wire after being targeted by thieves has been ordered to take it down — in case intruders scratch themselves. Bill Malcolm erected the 3-foot fence after thieves struck three times in just four months, stealing tools worth around £300 from his shed and ransacking his vegetable patch. But Bromsgrove district council has ordered the 61-year-old to remove the waist-high fence on health and safety grounds. Mr Malcolm … said: ‘It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation. All I wanted was to protect my property, but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself. The fence was just a single strand and ringing my property … [I]t wasn’t as though I’d dug a moat filled with piranha fish and erected 6-foot iron railings. … ‘They shouldn’t be trespassing in the first place but the council apologized and said they didn’t want to be sued by a wounded thief.” (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4bufva | |
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“Sedona’s character and identity may hinge on something as mundane as a low-pressure sodium lightbulb. That is why the Great Lamppost Debate of 2008 is raging. At issue is whether the Arizona Department of Transportation should illuminate Arizona 89A as it winds through town. Opponents of the lightbulbs say they would mean the destruction of Sedona’s stunning night sky, hurt the city’s identity as a place that embraces beauty and could possibly eliminate Sedona as a character that has stayed true to itself. Proponents of the lightbulbs think they would be a good way to light the road and keep pedestrians safe. They both may be right.” (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/48fxjn | |
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“Perhaps the most memorable question came at the end of Tuesday night’s presidential debate, when Tom Brokaw asked what he described as a ‘Zen-like’ query submitted online by Peggy in Amherst, N.H. The question — ‘What don’t you know and how will you learn it?’ — did not, however, come from a Zen master, a Buddhist monk, or a student of Confucius. It was the brainchild of Peggy Silva, a 60-year-old high school teacher who has been lobbing the question at presidential candidates for the last 18 years. ‘I’m the least Zen-like person on the planet,’ Silva said with a laugh in a telephone interview yesterday. ‘I’m chaotic, I’m disorganized, and I giggle.’ Living in New Hampshire has given the writing coordinator and literacy coach at Souhegan High School ample opportunity to grill presidential hopefuls.” (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4au74e | |
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“A newspaper report Thursday said tens of thousands of eligible voters have been removed from rolls or blocked from registering in at least six swing states, but election officials quickly lined up to defend their registration procedures and said they had done nothing wrong. The New York Times based its findings on reviews of state records and Social Security data, and said it had identified apparent problems in Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. The Times said voters appear to have been purged by mistake and not because of any intentional violations by election officials or coordinated efforts by any party.” (10/09/08) Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/ap_on_el_ge/voter_purges | |
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“Is Hong Kong really a financial rival to New York? In 2006, it surpassed Wall Street in initial public offerings (IPOs). And one morning last June, Hong Kong’s Financial Services Secretary K.C. Chan made a rare trip to Moscow. Addressing an audience of Russian government officials and businessmen, he made a blunt pitch: ‘Hong Kong is your best partner in reaching out to the international market,’ he insisted. ‘Hong Kong possesses strong credentials to provide quality services.’ That Mr. Chan believes he can lure Russian investors away from London or New York is an indication of how Wall Street’s Asian rivals have been gaining ground for some time now.” [editor’s note: If we are truly headed for a “global economy” (or actually already in one), let it be one based on true “free trade” … not veiled military threats and government sanctions - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1010/p06s02-woap.htmlc | |
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“The sheriff here said Wednesday that he’s ordering his deputies to stop evicting people from foreclosed properties because many people his office has helped throw out on the street are renters who did nothing wrong. ‘We will no longer be a party to something that’s so unjust,’ a visibly angry Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said at a news conference. ‘We have to be sure that when we are doing this — and we are destroying some people’s lives — we better be darned sure we’re talking about the right people,’ Dart said. Dart said he believes he’s the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop participating in foreclosure evictions, and the publisher of a national foreclosure database said he’s probably right.” (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4af65t | |
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“The widow of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide while in outpatient care for depression at a Veterans Affairs hospital has sued the federal government for negligence. Tiera Woodward, 26, claims in her lawsuit that her late husband, Donald, sought treatment at a VA hospital in Lebanon, Pa., after three failed suicide attempts but wasn’t seen by a psychiatrist for more than two months. She says doctors were slow to diagnose her husband with major depression, and that once the diagnosis was made, a psychiatrist failed to schedule a follow-up meeting with her husband after he informed the doctor he had gone off his medication. Donald Woodward killed himself in March 2003 at age 23. ‘I intend to make them make changes,’ said Donald Woodward’s mother, Lori Woodward.” (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3w8len | |
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“Central Ohio authorities have filed felony charges against a 15-year-old girl accused of taking nude cell phone photos of herself and sending them to high school classmates. Police say the Newark Licking Valley student was arrested Friday and held over the weekend. On Monday, she entered denials to juvenile charges of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material and possession of criminal tools. … A prosecutor says Licking County authorities are also considering charges for students who received the photos.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,434645,00.html | |
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“If voters abolish the state income tax next month, the state would be forced to slash most agency budgets by more than 70 percent, according to a report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. According to the report, the large cuts in local aid would lead to higher property taxes which for many individuals would more than offset their income tax savings. … Carla Howell, chairwoman of the Committee For Small Government, which is pushing for the income tax repeal, said Monday she had not seen a copy of the report, but believes the number is false. ‘Only funny math can come up with that number,’ said Howell, who estimates that eliminating the income tax would force state agencies to cut spending by 27 percent.” [editor’s note: False claims from MTF; ever since CLT got Prop 2-1/2 passed, it has taken special votes to raise that arena’s level, and only rarely have they succeeded - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4b225d | |
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“Barack Obama built on his momentum as he came face-to-face with his Republican rival John McCain in the second presidential debate in the race for the White House. The ‘worst financial crisis since the Great Depression’ dominated the encounter, which also saw the two candidates trade blows on foreign policy, the Iraq war and health care. A CNN poll taken immediately after the debate showed 54% thought Mr Obama won, compared with 33% for Mr McCain.” (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3jpd27 | |
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“Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud. Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state’s office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about ‘erroneous’ registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN. The group was submitting the information through a voter sign-up drive known as Project Vote. ‘Some of them used nonexistent names, some of them used false addresses and some of them were duplicates of previously filed applications,’ Walsh said, describing the complaints, which largely came from the registrar in Clark County, Nev. He said some registrations used the names of Dallas Cowboys football players.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3lbdxl | |
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“Dennis Kucinich opposed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout that went into effect Monday, and now that the stock market continues to fall he’s warning that the attempt to rescue the economy missed its mark. The Ohio Democrat says any government efforts need to focus primarily on putting more money into the pockets of middle- and lower-income Americans struggling to keep their homes and jobs, not to Wall Street institutions. ‘If Wall Street does come back for another bailout, we must be prepared in advance to say NO,’ Kucinich said in a press release Monday. ‘The bailouts of Wall Street must stop. It will never be enough. When the Federal Government gets involved in picking winners and losers on Wall Street, we open up a financial whirlpool of insatiable greed.’” [editor’s note: Not a question of mere “greed;” it’s called “accountability” … and in many cases, outright FRAUD! - SAT] (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/46qn64 | |
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“Election officials have responded to state Sen. Rosalind Kurita’s court effort to get her name on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election, saying there’s no way now to stop the process. Kurita has asked that Tim Barnes’ name be removed from the ballot as Democratic nominee for the State Senate District 22 seat and that Kurita’s name be placed there instead. Democratic Party leaders chose Barnes as the nominee after his campaign challenged Kurita’s win in the Aug. 7 primary election. ‘I don’t look for this to be easy, or a short process, but the good news is that we do have a chance to begin to set this right,’ Kurita said. ‘In the meantime, I am going to continue my write-in campaign.’ Barnes declined to comment.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4vnxoj | |
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“Zapping frozen meals in the microwave may be fast and easy, but it also can make you sick if it’s not done properly. That message has been slow to catch on, despite a spate of illnesses last year from improperly microwaved frozen foods. On Sunday, the government issued a new warning urging consumers to thoroughly cook frozen chicken dinners. … ‘Given how people use microwaves, it’s great for reheating, but maybe not so good for cooking,’ said Doug Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network based at Kansas State University. The problem is that microwaves heat unevenly and can leave cold spots in the food that harbor dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli, salmonella or listeria. So microwaving anything that includes frozen raw meat can cause problems.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4kov3j | |
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“A French scientist awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the Aids virus has predicted there would be a ‘therapeutic vaccine’ for the disease within four years. Luc Montagnier and his team discovered HIV at the French Pasteur Institute in Paris 25 years ago, and have been awarded the prestigious prize along with other scientists who worked on discovering the root of the virus. Montagnier, 76, said a treatment could be possible in the future with a ‘therapeutic’ rather than preventive vaccine for which results might be published in three or four years if financial backing is forthcoming.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4529u7 | |
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“Thousands of royalist protesters blockaded the Thai Parliament Tuesday, sparking violent clashes with riot police that injured more than 100 people. The unrest marked an escalation of a four-month campaign to oust a government that was elected by rural and urban poor but is bitterly opposed by influential elites in Bangkok. Legislators who were bused into the Parliament after police cleared a path found themselves trapped inside the building, as protesters took back the streets. As protesters poured into the area, police used tear gas to drive them back, and eventually led lawmakers out a back exit.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1008/p07s04-wosc.html | |
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“An anti-abortion group has won its long legal fight to force Arizona to issue ‘choose life’ license plates, after the Supreme Court declined to take the case. The justices, without comment Monday, left in place an appeals court ruling in favor of the Arizona Life Coalition, which has sought the special plates for six years. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, said the state commission on license plates violated the group’s constitutional right to free speech by turning down its application. The case is Stanton v. Arizona Life Coalition, 07-1366.” (10/06/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/48ssot | |
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“John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama speaks at a rally at Victory Landing Park in Newport News, Va. The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his healthcare plan ‘budget neutral,’ as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.” Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122315505846605217.html | |
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“An in-depth look at voter rolls across the state by a group of University of Connecticut journalism students earlier this year found that about 8,500 dead people were registered to vote, and that clerical errors made it appear that 300 of them actually had voted. A closer look by state election officials thus far has found no evidence of election fraud, though the review is ongoing. The students’ effort focused attention on weaknesses in public record-keeping at the local level that allowed thousands of mistakes to go undetected.” [editor’s note: So, as long as it’s not intentional like in Chicago … it’s nothing but bad bookkeeping? - SAT] (10/06/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4odaas | |
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“A British teachers’ union representative has come under fire after claiming that teachers who engage in consensual sex with students over the age of 16 should not be prosecuted, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Sunday. Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said in an interview to be broadcast in the U.K. on Monday that teachers who have sex with pupils over the age of consent are guilty of a mere ‘error in professional judgment,’ and should not be placed on the sex offenders register, the Mail reported.” [editor’s note: Were it not for the unequal power-standing of pupil-to-teacher, this lady might not be far off-base; since that imbalance clearly exists, she’s clearly crackers! - SAT] [additional editor’s note: Existence of a “power imbalance” is not evidence of misuse of said “imbalance” - TLK] (10/05/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432881,00.html | |
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“The tobacco company Altria Group is asking the US Supreme Court to short-circuit a class action lawsuit by angry smokers who say they were misled into believing that ‘low tar’ and ‘light’ cigarettes are a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes. A group of smokers in Maine filed suit against Philip Morris USA and its parent company, Altria, charging that the companies engaged in a decades-long fraud on Maine smokers in violation of state laws against deceptive business practices. Altria responded to the suit by arguing that its products are regulated by federal law and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), not the State of Maine.” (10/06/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1006/p03s05-usju.html | |
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“For five decades, people crossing the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge have noticed markings that indicated its length in ‘Smoots.’ Some may have assumed that the engineers at MIT, which sits on the Cambridge side of the span, had invented a sophisticated unit of measurement. Those who inquired further were told a quirky story that has become part of Boston lore. The Smoot was invented at MIT, yes, but not in any lab. It was the brainchild of a group of fraternity brothers on a cold night in 1958 who, in a fit of whimsy, used Oliver ‘Ollie’ Smoot Jr. as their unit of measurement when they marked the bridge. ‘It was 10 at night, and the wind was blowing, and so it was cold,’ said Smoot, who appeared at a ceremony at MIT yesterday in his honor.” [editor’ snote: Those who have never seen this should take a walk across that bridge; it’s frankly hilarious, and reading here that they actually DID physically roll him across the whole bridge … just makes it hysterical - SAT] (10/05/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4ux3pr | |
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“Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who insists he would veto any pork barrel bills to come across his desk as president, is struggling to explain his vote for the revised financial bailout plan that contained a number of those pet projects. In an interview on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program Thursday, McCain said the extra sweeteners added to the financial bailout bill that passed Wednesday night in the Senate are ‘just the way the system is working in Washington, and the reason why it’s got to be fixed and it’s got to be changed.’” (10/02/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/46fmfr | |
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“One way or another, Canada’s Green Party leader Elizabeth May will make history this week. The mother, lawyer, environmental activist, and native of Connecticut will be the first Green Party member to participate in national televised debates on equal footing with Canada’s mainstream party leaders. The debates — in French on Wednesday and in English on Thursday night — are ‘make or break’ events for a party long relegated to the fringes of Canadian politics. Despite Green Party success in Europe, Canadians have yet to elect a single Green member to Parliament.” (10/02/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3z8x6m | |
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“The FBI has blocked two of its veteran counterterrorism agents from going public with accusations that the CIA deliberately withheld crucial intelligence before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. FBI Special Agents Mark Rossini and Douglas Miller have asked for permission to appear in an upcoming public television documentary, scheduled to air in January, on pre-9/11 rivalries between the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency. The program is a spin-off from The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, by acclaimed investigative reporter James Bamford, due out in a matter of days.” (10/02/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4my7tq | |
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“A 45-year-old woman with a progressively debilitating disease appealed to the High Court yesterday to clarify the law on assisted suicide to enable her to plan her own death. Debbie Purdy, from Bradford, has multiple sclerosis, cannot walk and is losing strength in her upper body. She is seeking a landmark ruling on whether she can be helped to attend a clinic in Switzerland or Belgium, where assisted suicide is legal, if her illness becomes too much to bear. She is worried that her husband could be prosecuted by the British authorities if he accompanies her. That would leave her with no option but to go earlier, before she was ready, but while she could still make the journey alone. Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK and carries a maximum 14-year prison sentence. But the details of what constitutes ‘assisting a suicide’ have not been made clear.” (10/03/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4mmf8z | |
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“To Kirsten Brydum, a passionate 25-year-old community activist from San Francisco, one person’s junk was another’s treasure. Brydum, who wanted to change the world, certainly changed Dolores Park. Because of her, there is something called the Really, Really Free Market. People bring their rummage to the park on the last Saturday of the month and give it away. Nobody gets any money and everyone walks away a little richer. That was how she liked it. She loved the freedom of far-flung travel and of cycling. On Saturday, while cycling after midnight in New Orleans after spending Friday evening in a dance club, she was shot in the head and killed in an apparent robbery, police said. Her killer remains at large.” (10/02/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3q9cat | |
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“Western intelligence agencies have long suspected that elements of Pakistan’s spy service have aided the Taliban in Afghanistan, but a Spanish government report leaked to the media appears to be the first published assessment that spells out such cooperation. The August 2005 report says Pakistan’s shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped the Taliban procure roadside bombs and may even have provided training and intelligence to the Taliban in camps set up on Pakistani soil. The Pakistani agency, known as the ISI, planned to have the Taliban use the explosives ‘to assassinate high-ranking officials’ in Afghanistan, the report said.” [editor’s note: A 3-year-old report “leaked” … about a month before the election … Hmmm! Cui bono? - SAT] (10/02/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3k7lmg | |
Commentary
jump to News Section | jump to Events and Movement News Section
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“Anyone telling you that American capitalism is an economic system is dead wrong. American capitalism is only the economic face of a value system of morals and ethics, traditionally underpinned by religion. … Undercut these values and the final result is Lehman Brothers and AIG, the twisted faces of Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, of Fannie and Freddie pursuing give-a-way socialism with a capitalist face, and at last, a value vacuum so large that the Treasury Department is welcomed with applause (and votes) as it mounts a bloodless economic coup d’etat for which the American middle classes will be paying for generations. … The people could tumble this rotten edifice any time at the ballot box, but based on the ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?’ nature of some questions at last night’s debate, it’s not likely that we will.” [editor’s note: The other aspect of “greatest days” has to do with a return(?) to the trade-based republic focused on individual sovereignty our founders had in mind … instead of the oppressive, nation-building, corporatist global empire we’re now saddled with! - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/08/rmiller_1008/ | |
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“‘Is my money safe?’ That’s question No. 1 for many Americans today. And it goes to the moral heart of the global financial crisis: lack of trust. But some of this trust can be restored simply and inexpensively. My idea? What the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did for food-product labeling must be done for financial institutions. … Thanks to FDA guidelines, whether we’re buying vanilla yogurt or meat lasagna, we can look at the label and know what we’re getting. How much fat? How much sugar? How many calories? These questions are answered before we ever buy. We may choose to ignore them for a Ben & Jerry’s binge, but that’s our own business. We don’t need to be nutritionists to make an informed decision.” [editor’s note: This fellow’s inadvertently stumbled onto something here; the only error is the analogy. He should be comparing with Underwriters Laboratories CERTIFYING electrical appliances, not an FDA-clone (more likely to collude with those it’s sworn to “protect us from”)! - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1010/p09s03-coop.html | |
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“If you prefer irony to panic, you might consider the peculiar spectacle of the current administration, a bitter opponent of the New Deal, deploying the full force of the New Deal’s legacy to stave off the financial crisis. We’ve been bailing like it’s 1933, with the Exchange Stabilization Fund joining the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee in an effort to stop credit from vanishing. And now Congress has provided an emergency-relief program of the kind that made the New Deal work. But can New Deal programs succeed without New Dealers running them? Judging by the last time Americans tried it, during Herbert Hoover’s last year of office, the answer is, sadly, no.” [editor’s note: Which is (at least for now) our only hope, since a “new New Deal” requires a “new WWII[I]” to obscure out of the mess it creates - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/49uqdj | |
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“Why is $700,000,000,000 (looks bigger that way, doesn’t it?) the particular number that’s needed to restore investor confidence and fix the mess that investment banks and mortgage brokers have gotten us into? Good luck finding a convincing explanation. The number, to quote Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, needed to be ‘bold,’ big enough to ‘unclog the financial markets’ but not unduly spook legislators who have felt the wrath of Main Street. Why do we often find such numbers so convincing, even while recognizing, if only tacitly, how arbitrary they are?” [editor’s note: The real questions should be: (1) why do we let people get away with this kind of deception? and (2) why does this number NOT “unduly spook legislators” (the late Sen. Dirksen’s quote also comes to mind here) - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/46rtw3 | |
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“Almost unnoticed, Imam W.D. Mohammed died of heart disease and diabetes on Sept. 9 in his modest home in a Chicago suburb. His death received scant attention, which may have reflected Mohammed’s aversion to the spotlight, but it was hardly commensurate with his significance. Mohammed was one of the nation’s most influential Islamic clerics and strongest advocates of ecumenical unity, urging stronger links between Christians, Jews and Muslims. … What’s more, he was a potent influence on the African-American freedom movement, challenging the racial essentialism that rose during the Black Power era and transforming a black nationalist cult into a group advocating racial unity. Mohammed offered a model of reconciliation on two important fronts: Islamic piety with Western pluralism and U.S. patriotism with black activism.” (10/09/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4zjkeq | |
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“It is sad to see both major parties agree to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bail out huge financial institutions that are notable for two characteristics: incompetence and greed. There is a much better solution to the financial crisis. But it would require discarding what has been conventional wisdom for too long: that government intervention in the economy (’big government’) must be avoided like the plague, because the ‘free market’ can be depended on to guide the economy toward growth and justice. Surely the sight of Wall Street begging for government aid is almost comic in light of its long devotion to a ‘free market’ unregulated by government.” [editor’s note: Sigh … Don’t ANY of these folks ever consider saying, “don’t SPEND the [alleged] money at all … just leave it in our own hands, or don’t print up more of it in the first place!”? - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081027/zinn | |
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“The Wall Street US$810 billion — and counting — bailout is being interpreted by millions of angry Americans as no less than a class struggle weapon of mass destruction. It may cost US taxpayers over $2 trillion after real interest payments are added. Whoever is elected will inherit this toxic mess — which includes the biggest fiscal and foreign deficits in US history and no control of monetary policy. Yes, this bailout is a second Iraq war.” (10/09./08) Link: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JJ10Ak01.html | |
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“The reviews are in, and the latest U.S. presidential debate, the ‘town hall’ from Nashville, Tenn., was a snore. One problem is that in a debate it is important for the debaters to actually disagree. Yet Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain substantively agree on many issues. That is one major reason that the debates should be open, and that major third-party or independent candidates should be included.” (10/09/08) Link: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081008_open_the_debates/ | |
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Blowin’ like a circle ’round my skull
Source: The Wiscasset [ME] Newspaper Author: Christopher Cooper “After the bailout bill failed (both candidates voting in favor of it) and before it passed (both again in the affirmative), each candidate proposed his own ’sweetener’ to make it more palatable. Apparently they came up with this brilliant idea independently of each other. This amendment, they said, was designed to do something ‘for families.’ ‘Families,’ it seems, have been worried that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation only guarantees bank deposit accounts up to a hundred thousand dollars. Both candidates advocated raising the cap to a quarter million. … I was unaware that so many of my neighbors had so many accounts in excess of a hundred grand that their money was not adequately protected. But this is not the first time I have misread the public mood. I have foolishly spent my income on food and housing and transportation, rather than squirreling away so many hundreds of thousands of dollars that the banks cannot hold it all. My neighbors have apparently been more prudent, and they will be ‘reassured,’ they will have their ‘confidence restored’ in knowing that they can now receive insurance protection for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per account, thanks to the concern and attention and wisdom of candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.” (10/09/08) Link: http://wiscassetnewspaper.maine.com/ | |
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“If the actions pursued by the Federal Reserve were being masterminded by Al-Qaeda, they would be denounced as acts of war. In World War II, such actions were deliberate acts of war. Targeting the economy for destruction by flooding the money supply with counterfeit currency is, by any measure, a threat to any nation.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/024432.html | |
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“A classmate found our professor, Dr. Paul Streveler, looking pensive in his office a few years back. ‘Do you think Evil exists just to make Good look better?’ the doctor asked. I’m starting to wonder whether the Dream McPalin I keep encountering on the radio and internet exists for the same reason. Or, rather, the opposite reason. The more I hear about Dream McPalin, the worse the real one looks. Before each debate, hosts and pundits tell me what McPalin should say. Then McPalin doesn’t say it. Afterwards, I hear (or read) commentators saying what McPalin should have said. Some even go so far as to reenact scenes that never happened.” (10/09/08) Link: http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003565.html | |
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“I did something today which I hadn’t planned on doing — I gave a political contribution. This may surprise some of my readers who know I have a complete lack of confidence in any of the major candidates. I still have none. I wouldn’t contribute to a candidate today but I did contribute to a campaign. As my readers would know the[re] is a ballot initiative in California to strip gay couples of the legal equality before the law in regards to marriage. And the Mormons and Catholics have been pouring millions and millions of out-of-state funding into California in an effort to impose their bigoted, theological bullshit into the law. Today I learned that they even had people from outside the state working the phones to call California voters pegged as anti-gay to urge them to the polls to strip gays of this right. All this effort by these two corrupt and immoral institutions pissed me off.” (10/09/08) Link: http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2008/10/today-i-contributed-to-campaign.html | |
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“Voters want a grown-up in the White House more than they want a maverick or a great speechmaker. At times last night, two bickering children showed up instead. But there were enough times when Democrat Barack Obama looked and sounded like the adult the country desires. And that was bad news for Republican John McCain.” [editor’s note: What “voters want” (at least those with half a clue?) is grown-up leaders, who lead by example and suggestion, and only resort to force to uphold legitimate laws … like fraud or other coercive acts against individual persons, like so much of the “Bailout” should have addressed. Neither of these overage teenagers are addressing that - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4jp7we | |
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“At the time, it was perhaps the biggest bailout in US history. Today, one month later, the federal takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been all but forgotten in the drama of the global credit crunch. Washington careened off to pass a bigger bailout before a clear plan emerged about Fannie’s and Freddie’s future. The uncertain cost of their conservatorship is sobering enough, but a more subtly troubling matter is what to do with them after things settle down.” [editor’s note: After the perceptive title, this piece goes rapidly downhill. The bogus use of the word “privatization” just distorts the facts: the FM pair were (and have always been) adjuncts to the fedgov, NOT market-creations. Though it’s correct that the financial industry SHOULD have policed its own, and did not, the mindset that says a state-engineered Frankenstein monster could do the job is … just plain silly - SAT] (10/09/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1009/p09s01-coop.html | |
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“In late 1932, as large numbers of banks began to fail, there was a five month pause between Election Day and the inauguration of the new president, which was then held in March. It was the worst possible time for a long interregnum. Banks were failing, by the hundreds. One American in four was unemployed. Herbert Hoover, now the lame-duck president, repeatedly tried to enlist Franklin Roosevelt’s support for some form of emergency bank closure proclamation, relying on emergency wartime legislation enacted in World War I. But Roosevelt did not want to be tainted by the failed Hoover, and Hoover would not act on his own authority without Roosevelt’s concurrence.” [editor’s note: Of course, after January, it’ll be in shambles anyway, regardless of whether it’s O’Clown or McBama on the throne … - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/49r7j3 | |
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“The 2000 presidential election was an in-broad-daylight assault on both the concept of democracy and its practice in the United States. Democrat Al Gore received 543,895 more votes nationwide than Republican George Bush. Unfortunately, because American presidential elections are not decided by the voters but by an antiquated and anti-democratic Electoral College, that didn’t mean much. Nor did it mean much that a clear plurality of voters in the contested state of Florida went to the polls with the intention of giving that state’s electoral votes to Gore, and with those electoral votes the presidency.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/370240 | |
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“So one of Gov. Sarah Palin’s best friends is gay. Her pal ‘happens to have made a choice that isn’t a choice that I have made,’ Palin told Katie Couric last week. That language resurfaced in the vice presidential debate, when Palin insisted that she was ‘tolerant’ of Americans ‘choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves.’ Calling homosexuality a choice is the time-tested way politicians signal their belief that it is the wrong choice. Which is why Palin’s comments prompted predictable anger from gay rights advocates. … But insisting that homosexuality is wholly involuntary does little to defend gays and lesbians from social disapproval.” [editor’s note: As someone who once labored as a journalist in the Boston gay community (long story), I have often wondered what moron decided that defending “being gay” as an inborn trait … was either politically or psychologically intelligent. This might be the first thing I’ve seen in the last 30 years to address that coherently - SAT] (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4qrgsx | |
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“One thing, of many, that I find amazing is people often vote for candidates NOT in line with their own values. For instance, if a gay person, who is working hard to legalize same-sex marriage in their state, votes for McCain or Obama, then you’d have to stand back and ask why? Why would that person vote for someone clearly not on the same page as themselves? Perhaps they feel they have a limited choice of either Republican or Democrat. FYI: Florida will have 13 presidential candidates on the ballot Nov. 4th.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.nolanchart.com/article5147.html | |
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“McCain is in a tough spot. He’s behind. Obama has the momentum, and McCain needs to take it away. He didn’t necessarily do poorly — and he did much better on foreign policy than on domestic matters. But McCain needed to change the dynamic. You could see him trying. He pressed Obama on his opposition to the surge, the penalty Obama would impose on those who didn’t sign up for a health-care plan, even that he was speaking too long. But this was all small stuff. A town-hall debate is a hard place to change the dynamic, and yet there are few opportunities in the remaining 27 days where he has such a big chance.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2201762/ | |
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“At a recent rally in a California suburb, GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin declared, ‘Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.’ (This was a reference to Obama’s past association with Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical who became an education expert). And on Monday, McCain delivered a blistering attack on Obama that was loaded with inaccuracies and distortions. So one expectation among the politerati was that McCain would continue swinging — or thrashing — at the second debate. Work in Bill Ayers. Refer to Jeremiah Wright. Depict Obama as shifty and untrustworthy. That did not happen.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3o2qwe | |
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Thousands of troops are deployed on US streets ready to carry out “crowd control”
Source: AlterNet Author: Naomi Wolf “George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the ‘War on Terror,’ the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield. He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined ‘insurrection’ or many other ‘conditions’ he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus — habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial — in the event of an ‘insurrection.’ With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters ‘insurgents’ staging an ‘insurrection’ is strengthened.” (10/08/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5xh7og | |
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“In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama called the forthcoming presidential election a ‘defining moment’ in this country’s history. It is conceivable that he is right. There are precedents in American history for an election inaugurating a period of reform and political realignment. Such a development, however, is extremely rare and surrounded by contingencies normally beyond the control of the advocates of reform. So let me speculate about whether the 2008 election might set in motion a political reconfiguration — and even a political renaissance — in the United States, restoring a modicum of democracy to the country’s political system, while ending our march toward imperialism, perpetual warfare, and bankruptcy that began with the Cold War.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt356.html | |
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“When it comes to stopping Question 1 — the ballot initiative to abolish the Massachusetts income tax — the defenders of the status quo will spare no rhetorical expense. Months ago, Governor Deval Patrick called the prospect of Massachusetts without an income tax ‘a dumb idea’ reminiscent of Darfur. The National Education Association, one of the public-employee unions bankrolling the Vote No campaign, condemns Question 1 as ‘reckless.’ Michael Widmer, head of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, labels it ‘a calamity.’ To the Globe’s editorial board, it’s ‘a blunt budget ax.’” (10/06/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4tlaeb | |
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“It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. The American people have an ear for B.S. They can tell when someone’s mouth is moving and the clutch is not engaged. … She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity, and she was Mr. McCain’s first major decision as nominee. This troubles independent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy. She will get a nice book deal from Regnery and a new career making personal appearances for 40 grand a pop, and she’ll become a trivia question, ‘What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to see Russia from her house?’ And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves out of the swamp of Republican economics.” (10/08/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2008/10/08/palin/ | |
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“By using at least one private email account for state business, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has virtually guaranteed that most of the emails she sent as governor — which are subject to the state’s Open Records Act — will not be publicly released before Election Day. … Palin has used at least two private email accounts in addition to her state account. That posed a serious challenge to the record-keepers in her office: how to find the emails to and from these accounts. The information managers had easy access to the emails she generated and received with her official account. But they did not have access to a Yahoo account she used for official communications and another private account she might have used for state business.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4mq6xb | |
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“With the federal government’s failure to address climate change, close to 900 U.S. cities and towns have agreed to reduce greenhouse gases in their communities by at least 7 percent by 2012. Support for small-scale solar and wind electricity generators would go a long way toward meeting those goals, especially as large-scale systems continue to get bogged down by opposition in many communities. States nationwide are implementing or expanding programs that serve as an important economic incentive; people who generate their own clean energy can send the excess to the grid, dramatically lowering their electric bills, while also reducing demand on non-renewable, over-stressed electric systems. However, many towns, counties and cities are still making it difficult and expensive for people who want to generate their own renewable energy.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3kxd5g | |
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“This land is Hank’s land, this land is Hank’s land Link: http://tinyurl.com/54baw7 | |
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Will the November Surprise be disenfranchised voters?
Source: The American Prospect Author: Paul Waldman “Just a couple of weeks ago, a lot of Democrats were mad at Barack Obama. John McCain had crept ahead in some tracking polls, and Obama’s supporters were pleading with him to get tough and hit McCain where it hurts. … Now that Obama has moved into a lead of about six to eight points, Democrats have stopped getting mad and started getting anxious. Surely, the GOP has an October surprise up its sleeve. Or despite what they’re saying to pollsters, Americans just won’t elect a black man to the White House. Or Democrats will find a way, just as they have so often before, to screw things up. I hate to contribute to this anxiety, but there is one thing people haven’t been worried enough about: whether everyone who wants to vote will be able to, and whether everyone’s vote will actually be counted.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4bgnfw | |
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“Conning voters has always been a part of Arizona’s initiative process. But that could end in November. If the folks behind Proposition 105 have their way, this could be the last election in which special interests use the initiative process to fool voters. … Proposition 105 says that if a ballot initiative ‘establishes, imposes or raises a tax, fee, or other revenue, or mandates a spending obligation …’ that it must be approved by a ‘majority of qualified electors registered to vote.’ Not a majority of people who actually vote, but a majority of those who are registered to vote. In other words, all of those men and women who don’t show up to the polls or don’t file early ballots will be counted as ‘no’ votes.” [editor’s note: The purpose of this issue is to provide SOME safety against a mere plurality of the electorate being able to foist tax increases on their neighbors. Based on some of his previous columns, Montini should be cheering this, not condemning its clever approach - SAT] (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4d5dt5 | |
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“There is now more disappointing news for survivors who for years have clung to the hope that cold cases from the civil rights era would be solved and assailants brought to justice. Last year, in a much-ballyhooed news conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller promised to make these unsolved murder cases a major priority. That has turned out to be nothing but a public relations gimmick. Gonzales made the commitment in the midst of the furor over his management of the Bush Justice Department that ultimately led to his resignation. The department has just admitted that there are no cold-case prosecutions under way and little, if any, work has been done at all. One lesson here is to be suspicious of the promises to act made by embattled government officials, particularly when they have previously ignored the problem.” [editor’s note: Funny, the title could have been used for pretty much ANY subject! - SAT] (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3nkcet | |
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“My own life and hardships speak for themselves about the obstacles Afghan women face today. I’ve been threatened with death; I’ve survived a number of assassination attempts; and every effort is made by the fundamentalists to silence me. But I am happy to enjoy support of the peace-loving people of the world. I am especially grateful to Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR) for considering me for the Anna Politkovskaya Award of 2008. I am deeply honored to receive this award, which links me to the memory of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her life for telling the truth and fighting for justice. Her perseverance, bravery and dedication to justice inspire me. By receiving this award, I once again vow not to stop for a moment from telling the truth in the face of death threats and intimidation.” (10/07/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081020/joya | |
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“The End of Days is approaching for John McCain and Sarah Palin, and at least one member of the ticket is not likely to greet this development with religious rapture. Their numbers are tanking. Their campaign has had to pull out of Michigan, and they are trailing in most of the battleground states they must hold onto. Even Karl Rove has predicted an Obama win if the election were held today. McCain’s hotheaded behavior during the Wall Street crisis and his numerous other erratic tactical swerves have backfired. And his biggest gamble, choosing Sarah Palin as vice president, is increasingly looking like a disaster. McCain’s all-too-predictable response: get ugly, as he did on Monday is his disturbing rant against Obama in New Mexico. The man who incessantly talks about ‘honor’ has checked his own at the door.” (10/07/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/4623mk |