[CTRL] Fwd: Touchscreens botch Florida vote
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: "Chellie Pingree, Common Cause" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: November 13, 2006 8:10:58 AM PSTTo: "Kris Millegan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: Touchscreens botch Florida voteReply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dear Kris,Did you hear about the 18,382 missing votes in Sarasota County, FL? We need you to spread the word about this outrageous story right away, by forwarding the message you see below.There is an easy fix to the troubles we saw not just in Florida, but in multiple states last week - paper records. Help us build pressure on Congress to act! Hit "Forward" now and pass along the story below to six people.Why six? We've already generated 15,000 letters since Wednesday demanding that electronic votes always have a paper trail. If you forward this to six people from your network, we can generate a flood of 100,000 letters Congress can't ignore.Thanks,Chellie Pingree, PresidentCommon Cause- COPY & FORWARD THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE -Hi,I don’t know if you’ve heard about this - it’s ridiculous. 18,382 votes have been LOST by paperless voting machines in one Florida House race.That's one in seven of the votes cast there JUST GONE because electronic voting machines left no paper record! The Republican candidate only won by 368 votes.Common Cause is jumping in, demanding tests of the machines and a revote, and I just took action to push for the big-picture solution - mandatory paper trails - by writing to my Senator. I hope you'll join me at www.GetItStraightby2008.org.This debacle didn't have to happen. A voter-verified paper record of the ballot would have shown voters that their choice in the race wasn't recorded.Ironically, that same day, those Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a measure requiring paper receipts in their county. GetItStraightby2008.org is the campaign for that same solution nationwide.The first step is flooding Congress with 100,000 letters demanding voter-verified paper records and random audits of electronic machines.Write your Senators NOW for a paper trail: www.GetItStraightby2008.org.When you act, you join Common Cause in documenting voting problems nationwide, pushing for a revote in Sarasota, and forcing the Senate's hand on clean elections. Please pass this message on far and wide.Thanks,Kris Forward this email Give to Common Cause Discuss this messageRemove yourself from this mailing.Remove yourself from all mailings from Common Cause. = www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
Re: [CTRL] Fwd: NO IMPEACHMENT?!?!
-Caveat Lector- Bush has only 2 years left of a lame duck term that's been crippled by the results of last week's election. Consider the outcome if he is removed from office -- we get the Dark Lord Cheney instead.I say leave Bush alone and impeach Cheney. June Disaster Relief Discussion: an email list devoted to discussing the problems with current disaster relief agencies, and to promote ideas for change. To join, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Situation Reports: an email list for reports/alerts from around the U.S. regarding unusual and/or emergency military, police, or government operations, troop movements, roadblocks/checkpoints, siezures/confiscations, price gouging, arrests, violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, etc. To join, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Fwd: Site Hacked to Keep BBC 911 Anniversary Video Off Web
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: "Eric Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: November 13, 2006 5:20:28 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Site Hacked to Keep BBC 911 Anniversary Video Off Web http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/2006/11/site-hacked-to-keep-bbc-911.htmlSite Hacked to Keep BBC 911 Anniversary Video Off Web Regarding 9/11: Controlled Demo Proven in 19 Seconds, whose posting at this blog has brought a world of electronic "difficulties":Site Hacked to Keep BBC 911 Anniversary Video Off Webby Rick SiegelI just never thought it was that important. How many millions of people already know that the destruction of the Trade Centers in NYC on September 11, 2001 were not caused by some jet or its subsequent fire.This latest release of footage from BBC on the anniversary of the 911 events did not seem to me that important even though it clearly has audible and visual evidence of the demolition charges destroying the building. It was given to me from a person who told me that google, yahoo and his web provider closed his accounts for having it on. I did not believe this and put it up myself.Well, here I am to tell you within 38 hours of posting the article and getting it on Shoutwire the site was hacked. Not a normal hack, but a root level attack to turn the whole thing off. There was no defacement just dismemberment.I only noticed it at 3amCST and it was taken down at 8pmCST as far as the logs can show. We are working to identify the culprit but as this usually goes to a building there will be very little in getting to the culprit.[...]On September 7, 2006 the BBC showed a special anniversary program for the anniversary of 911 events. The show was called "911: The TwinTowers". The video is of great significance as you can see and hear the Tower being demolished and hear the sequence of charges.[...]The sound allegedly has not been enhanced in any way and is even distorted by the Google encoding yet sets itself in accord with the testimony of most eyewitness testimony. That includes testimony from the FDNY firefighters.The building had 114 floors and took approximately 10 seconds to collapse. In this video fourteen explosions can be heard in a period of 5 seconds dispelling any belief in a "pancake theory".While more and more evidence piles up and the floodgates are ready to burst one ponders what it will take for the people to finally get up and kick the people subverting the indictments into jail. Instead we note that they have now been promoted to higher positions of power/ they have passed more draconian laws stripping more freedoms and liberties in the belief that it will save us from the invisible enemy who cannot be killed.If you or yours were murdered, would you not hope for a murder investigation? 3000 people died in NYC that day and there has not been one murder investigation, indictment or trial for any crime. Not one.[...]The article, in its entirety, is here.The video in question, is here. -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Send your email first class = www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Fwd: [Fw: A Veteran Remembers (ZINN)]
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 13, 2006 7:02:14 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Fwd: [Fw: A Veteran Remembers (ZINN)] From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: November 12, 2006 7:32:20 PM PSTSubject: [Fw: A Veteran Remembers (ZINN)]Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15587.htm*A Veteran Remembers*By Howard Zinn11/12/06"ICH" -- Let's go back to the beginning of Veterans Day. It used to be Armistice Day, because at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I came to an end.We must not forget that conflict. It revealed the essence of war, of all wars, because however "just" or "humanitarian" may be the claims, at the irreducible core of all war is the slaughter of the innocent, organized by national leaders, accompanied by lies. World War I was its epitome, as generals and politicians sent young men forward from their trenches, bayonets fixed, to gain a few miles, even a few yards, at frightful cost.In July 1916, the British General Douglas Haig ordered 11 divisions of English soldiers to climb out of their trenches and move toward the German lines. The six German divisions opened up with their machine guns. Of the 110,000 who attacked, more than half were killed or wounded -- all those bodies strewn on no man's land, the ghostly territory between the contending trenches. That scenario went on for years. In the first battle of the Marne, there were a million casualties, 500,000 on each side.The soldiers began to rebel, which is always the most heroic thing soldiers can do, for which they should be given medals. In the French Army, out of 112 divisions, 68 would have mutinies. Fifty men would be shot by firing squads.Three of those executions became the basis for the late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's antiwar masterpiece, "Paths of Glory." In that film, a pompous general castigates his soldiers for retreating and talks of "patriotism." Kirk Douglas, the lieutenant colonel who defends his men, enrages the general by quoting the famous lines of Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."The supposed moral justification of that war (the evil Kaiser, the Belgian babies) disintegrated quickly after it ended with sudden recognition of the 10 million dead in the mud of France and the gassed, shell-shocked, and limbless veterans confronting the world.The ugliness of that war was uncomplicated by the moral righteousness that made later wars, from World War II on, unsullied in our memory, or at least acceptable. Vietnam was the stark exception. But even there our national leaders have worked hard to smother what they call "the Vietnam syndrome." They want us to forget what we learned at the Vietnam War's end: that our leaders cannot be trusted, that modern war is inevitably a war against civilians and particularly children, that only a determined citizenry can stop the government when it embarks on mass murder.Our decent impulse, to recognize the ordeal of our veterans, has been used to obscure the fact that they died, they were crippled, for no good cause other than the power and profit of a few. Veterans Day, instead of an occasion for denouncing war, has become an occasion for bringing out the flags, the uniforms, the martial music, the patriotic speeches reeking with hypocrisy. Those who name holidays, playing on our genuine feeling for veterans, have turned a day that celebrated the end of a horror into a day to honor militarism.As a combat veteran myself, of a "good war," against fascism, I do not want the recognition of my service to be used as a glorification of war. At the end of that war, in which 50 million died, the people of the world should have shouted "Enough!" We should have decided that from that moment on, we would renounce war -- and there would be no Korean War, Vietnam War, Panama War, Grenada War, Gulf War, Balkan War.The reason for such a decision is that war in our time -- whatever "humanitarian" motives are claimed by our political leaders -- is always a war against children: the child amputees created by our bombing of Yugoslavia, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead as a result of our postwar sanctions. Veterans Day should be an occasion for a national vow: No more war victims on the other side; no more war veterans on our side.-- No virus found in this outgoing message.Checked by AVG Free Edition.Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.14.3/530 - Release Date: 11/11/06 = www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
[CTRL] Fwd: THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERS
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: APFN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: November 12, 2006 8:35:54 PM PSTTo: APFN Yahoogroups <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERSReply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]BOB DYLAN'S - Masters of War — Masters of War, Mon Nov 13 00:10Military Commissions Act of 2006 — Google News Alert for:, Mon Nov 13 00:27THE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERS — FILED IN GERMANY ON NOVEMBER 14, 2006, Mon Nov 13 00:31 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/other_pdf/Background_Brief_on_German_Case.html BACKGROUND BRIEF O NTHE CASE AGAINST RUMSFELD, GONZALES AND OTHERSFILED IN GERMANY ON NOVEMBER 14, 2006The November 14, 2006, criminal complaint is a request for the German Federal Prosecutor to open an investigation and, ultimately, a criminal prosecution that will look into the responsibility of high-ranking U.S. officials for authorizing war crimes in the context of the so-called “War on Terror.” The complaint is brought on behalf of 12 torture victims – 11 Iraqi citizens who were held at Abu Ghraib prison and one Guantánamo detainee – and is being filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Republican Attorneys' Association (RAV) and others, all represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kaleck. The complaint is related to a 2004 complaint that was dismissed, but the new complaint is filed with much new evidence, new defendants and plaintiffs, a new German Federal Prosecutor and, most important, under new circumstances that include the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense and the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in the U.S. granting officials retroactive immunity from prosecution for war crimes. Executive Summary of the Complaint’s Allegations: From Donald Rumsfeld on down, the political and military leaders in charge of ordering, allowing and implementing abusive interrogation techniques in the context of the “War on Terror” since September 11, 2001, must be investigated and held accountable. The complaint alleges that American military and civilian high-ranking officials named as defendants in the case have committed war crimes against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the U.S.-controlled Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The complaint alleges that the defendants “ordered” war crimes, “aided or abetted” war crimes, or “failed, as civilian superiors or military commanders, to prevent their commission by subordinates, or to punish their subordinates,” actions that are explicitly criminalized by German law. The U.S. administration has treated hundreds if not thousands of detainees in a coercive manner, in accordance with “harsh interrogation techniques” ordered by Secretary Rumsfeld himself that legally constitute torture and/or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in blatant violation of the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1984 Convention Against Torture and the 1977 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – to all of which the United States is a party. Under international humanitarian treaty and customary law, and as re-stated in German law, these acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment constitute war crimes. The U.S. torture program that resulted in war crimes was aided and abetted by the government lawyers also named in this case: former Chief White House Counsel (and current Attorney General) Alberto R. Gonzales, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, and General Counsel of the Department of Defense William James Haynes, II. While some of them claim to merely have given legal opinions, those opinions were false or clearly erroneous and given in a context where it was known and foreseeable to these lawyers that torture would be the result. Not only was torture foreseeable, but this legal advice was given to facilitate and aid and abet torture as well as to attempt to immunize those who tortured. Without these opinions, the torture program could not have occurred. The infamous “Torture Memo” dated August 1, 2002, is the key document that redefined torture so narrowly that such classic and age old torture techniques as water-boarding were authorized to be employed and were employed by U.S. officials against detainees. Why Germany? The complaint is being filed under the Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL), enacted by Germany in compliance with the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court in 2002, which Germany ratified. The CCIL provides for “universal jurisdiction” for war crimes, crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. It enables the German Federal Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute crimes constituting a violation of the CCIL, irrespective of the location of the defendant or plaintiff, the place where the crime was carried out, or the nationality of the persons involved. No
[CTRL] Fwd: Loose Lips ...
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 12, 2006 10:32:10 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Loose Lips ... ... tell the TRUTH about 9/11? Bush admitting that explosives were detonated in the World Trade Center: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/bushadmitsbombs.mp3 Rumsfeld saying that Flight 93 was shot down (not downed by terrorists): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0v0_HDwg84&mode=related&search== www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Fwd: Greg Palast on 2006
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 12, 2006 11:03:48 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Greg Palast on 2006 How They Stole the Midterm Election by Greg Palast http: //www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=11372 [This was a comment written for The Guardian (U.K.) and published the day before the U.S. midterm election.] Here's how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen. Note the past tense. And I'm not kidding. And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means. For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We've found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here's how they'll do it, in three easy steps: Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind. On January 1, 2006, while America slept off New Year's Eve hangovers, a new federal law crept out of the swamps that has devoured 1.9 million votes, overwhelmingly those of African-Americans and Hispanics. The vote-snatching statute is a cankerous codicil slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act -- strategically timed to go into effect in this mid-term year. It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can't be verified against a state verification database. Sounds arcane and not too threatening. But look at the numbers and you won't feel so fine. About 24.3 million Americans attempt to register or re-register each year. The New York University Law School's Brennan Center told me that, under the new law, Republican Secretaries of State began the year by blocking about one in three new voters. How? To begin with, Mr. Bush's Social Security Administration has failed to verify 47% of registrants. After appeals and new attempts to register, US Elections Assistance Agency statistics indicate 1.9 million would-be voters will still find themselves barred from the ballot on Tuesday. But don't worry: those holding passports from their ski vacations to Switzerland are doing just fine. And that's the point. It's not the number of voters rejected, it's their color. For example, California's Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson figured out how to block 40% of registrants, mostly Hispanics. In a rare counter-move, Los Angeles, with a Hispanic mayor, contacted these citizens, "verified" them and got almost every single one back on the rolls. But throughout the rest of the West, new Hispanics remain victims of the "José Crow" treatment. In hotly contested Ohio, Kenneth Blackwell, Secretary of State and the Republican's candidate for Governor, remains voter-rejection champ -- partly by keeping the rejection criteria a complete secret. Theft #2: Turned Away -- the ID game. A legion of pimple-faced Republicans with Blackberries loaded with lists of new voters is assigned to challenge citizens in heavily Black and Hispanic(i.e. Democratic) precincts to demand photo ID that perfectly matches registration data. Sounds benign, but it's not. The federal HAVA law and complex new ID requirements in states like New Mexico will easily allow the GOP squads to triple the number of voters turned away. Rather than deny using these voter suppression tactics, Republican spokesmen are claiming they are "protecting the integrity of the vote." I've heard that before. In 2004, we got our hands on fifty confidential internal memos from the files of the Republican National Committee. Attached to these were some pretty strange spreadsheets. They called them "caging lists" -- and it wasn't about zoo feeding times. They were lists (70,000 for Florida alone) of new Black and Jewish voters -- a very Democratic demographic -- to challenge on Election Day. The GOP did so with avengeance: In 2004, for the first time in half a century, more than 3.5 million voters were challenged on Election Day. Worse, nearly half lost their vote: 300,000 were turned away for wrong ID; 1.1 million were allowed a "provisional" ballot -- which was then simply tossed out. Tomorrow, new federal ID requirements and a dozen new state show-me-your-ID laws will permit the GOP challenge campaign to triple their 300,000 record to nearly one million voters blocked. Theft #3: Votes Spoiled Rotten. The nasty little secret of US elections is that three million ballots are cast in national elections but not counted -- 3,600,380 not counted in 2004 according to US Election Commission stats. These are votes lost because a punch card didn't punch (its chad got "hung"), a stray mark voided a paper ballot and other machinery glitches. Of
[CTRL] Fwd: Impeach
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 12, 2006 10:59:01 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Impeach "Impeaching President Bush has less to do with the (admittedly far-fetched) chances of removing the man from office than with the opposition standing up for the rule of law and for the Constitution, which is The Right Thing to Do — regardless of how that might play in 2008. Every failure by a Congress to dust off the chains of impeachment —for Nixon or for Reagan at the height of Iran-Contra— has encouraged the office of the presidency to creep toward what Jefferson warned us about, "an elected despotism." So You Think You Want to Impeach? Book reviews Tim Dickinson Mother Jones, November/December 2006 Issuehttp://www.mojones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=""> The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism and Why It Must Be Applied to George W. BushBy John NicholsThe New Press. 217 pages. $15.95.Pretensions to Empire: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush AdministrationBy Lewis LaphamThe New Press. 277 pages. $24.95.The Case For Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush From OfficeBy David Lindorff and Barbara OlshanskySt. Martin's Press. 275 pages. $23.95.Articles of Impeachment Against George W. BushBy the Center For Constitutional RightsMelville House Publishing. 141 pages. $9.95.The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Handbook for Concerned CitizensBy Elizabeth Holtzman and Cindy CooperNation Books. 256 pages. $14.95.ON OCTOBER 7, 2003, citizens of the world's fifth-largest economy swarmed to the ballot box to oust their feckless chief executive in a special recall election. The wellspring of their discontent? A fiscal emergency, linked to a bungled electricity crisis, which had left constituents sweltering in the dark. Vying for votes against a motley crew better suited for a season of hijinks on VH1's The Surreal Life—a midget, a porn star, a Greek millionairess, an ex-Mr. Universe—Governor Gray Davis was thus rudely ushered out of power and Arnold Schwarzenegger installed as commander in chief of a state reborn, in a guttural instant, as "Galifornia."With the benefit of hindsight, it's now clear that the wrong politician got the boot for the Golden State's woes. The energy crisis had nothing to do with Davis, the tone-deaf technocrat. Instead, it was a criminal conspiracy by Enron to plunder state coffers with schemes so malevolent that company traders code-named their effort "The Death Star."If dead men could tell tales, Ken Lay might now regale us with the secret back story of those infamous energy meetings in the White House—the ones whose opacity Vice President Dick Cheney defended all the way to the Supreme Court—and expose the role of the Bush administration in suborning that faux "crisis." At the time, our president laughed off calls to investigate market manipulation by his chief corporate benefactor, even as he used California's blackouts as cover for abandoning his most important campaign promise. "We're now in an energy crisis," Bush declared in the spring of 2001. "And that's why I decided to not have mandatory caps on CO2."And perhaps, then, we as Americans would demand ultimate accountability. For if lying under oath about a sexual dalliance with a Botero-esque intern is an impeachable offense, so certainly would be administration complicity in the effort to (as one Enron trader put it so coarsely) "jam Grandma Millie…right up her asshole for a fucking $250 per megawatt hour."But why limit ourselves to speculation about misdemeanors when the administration's high crimes are hiding in plain sight: Whereas the administration "fixed" intelligence to embark on a war of choice, unsanctioned by international law. Whereas a criminally incompetent lack of planning has caused that conflict to drag on longer than U.S. involvement in World War II, while spurring the nuclear ambitions of the mullahs in Tehran. Whereas the president authorized the National Security Administration to engage in warrantless wiretaps of American citizens in violation of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the doctrine of separation of powers, and the express will of Congress in establishing the fisa courts. Whereas the president has authorized the use of torture in contravention of military law and Article Three of the Geneva Convention, violations of which, as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy pointedly observed in the Hamdan decision, "are considered 'war crimes,' punishable as federal offenses." Whereas the president has subjected "enemy combatants" to unconstitutional trial by military tribunal, and held American citizens in indefinite detention without access to lawyers or criminal courts. Whereas the administration's homicidal dithering left more than a thousand of our most vulnerable countrymen to perish, needlessly, under the waters churned by Hurricane K
[CTRL] Fwd: Loose Cannon in the Middle East
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 12, 2006 10:47:49 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Loose Cannon in the Middle EastAssociated Press CAIRO -- Arab diplomats began discussions to try to hammer out a response to the new Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which saw more than 50 people killed over a few days last week. Zionist "jihad" against Arabs -- first Lebanon, now Gaza ... (Israel still counting on U.S. intervention to deal with Iran) Israelis fear arms buildup in Gaza Parallels seen with LebanonBy Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | November 12, 2006http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/12/israelis_fear_arms_buildup_in_gaza/BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip -- Israeli officials say they fear that the Gaza Strip could become another southern Lebanon, a concern that drove the Israelis' weeklong invasion of this northern Gaza town last week and could soon lead to a larger offensive in southern Gaza to stop militants from smuggling weapons across the Egyptian border.A senior military official recently [used the term] "Lebanonization" -- the possibility that Palestinian militants could end up as well organized, well fortified, and well armed as the Lebanese group Hezbollah -- as the most worrying new threat Israel faces in Gaza.But last week's fighting in Beit Hanoun also showed that Israel could face many of the obstacles there that it faced in Lebanon last summer.The weeklong invasion of the northern Gaza town that ended Tuesday was aimed at rooting out militants who daily fire crude Qassam rockets into Israel and are trying to get their hands on much deadlier rockets and missiles like the ones that Hezbollah fighters rained down on Israel during the war with the Lebanese militia.In that conflict, Hamas watched Hezbollah's army-like discipline and antitank rockets deny the much-stronger Israeli army a decisive victory. After that, the Israeli military official said, the Palestinian group decided to "imitate Hezbollah." Hamas, he said, began smuggling in more-advanced weapons and Iranian know-how through a growing network of tunnels under the Egyptian border.But the fighting in Beit Hanoun ended in a debacle that revealed another parallel with Lebanon.On Wednesday morning, Israeli artillery shells crashed into apartment buildings here, killing 19 civilians, 17 of them from a single family, in the largest death toll among Palestinian civilians in six years of conflict. Israeli officials apologized for what they called a tragic accident.The Beit Hanoun deaths showed once again that there is no guarantee that heavy Israeli firepower can crush militants who operate in crowded areas without killing large numbers of civilians, fueling rage against Israel and hardening support for the armed groups Israel wants to undermine.The deaths also prompted a broader debate over tactics in Gaza, where Israel risks the same ambiguous results it achieved in Lebanon: It could inflict, and sustain, major casualties without achieving its main goal of stamping out militants' ability to fire rockets into Israel.At the same time, Palestinians face their own version of the Lebanese nightmare: They question whether militants who are unaccountable to the government should have the power to bring down a devastating Israeli response by choosing to fire their rockets.Ayoub Kafarneh, 73, a mukhtar, or community leader, in Beit Hanoun, said he opposes the rocket firings."You need few people to make war. But everybody suffers from the consequences," he said. "There are people who want peace. But their voices are unheard."As the Atamna family buried its victims in a mass funeral Thursday, mourners stood on tiptoe to touch the pale faces of the dead as they were carried above the crowd. Not only Hamas supporters, but also members of the Atamna clan, who mostly back the more moderate Fatah movement, said they would support new attacks on Israel in response. Images of grieving relatives and bloody debris already had been beamed around the world, provoking Israeli protests in Tel Aviv and international appeals to Israel to prevent civilian casualties.The events echoed those of July 30, when an Israeli airstrike on a house in the southern Lebanese town of Qana killed 28 civilians. That attack undermined the international support for the war Israel launched after Hezbollah militants crossed into its territory and captured two Israeli soldiers.In Qana, the Israeli military initially said militants had fired rockets from the house, but later said they had no such information.In Beit Hanoun, an Israeli military investigation ruled Thursday, the military did not intend to hit the Atamna family compound. Seven artillery shells fired at a suspected rocket-launching team in an orange orchard landed 400 yards from their target, because of a radar system that was inaccurately calibrated, the military said.The militar
[CTRL] Fwd: Dumbocrats vs Repugnantcons: Who's More Corrupt and Elitist? Do the Math.
-Caveat Lector- Begin forwarded message:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: November 12, 2006 11:55:56 AM PSTTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Dumbocrats vs Repugnantcons: Who's More Corrupt and Elitist? Do the Math. October 10, 2004 http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_10/004890.php REPUBLICANS vs. DEMOCRATSThe Boston Globe ran an excellent 3-part series earlier this week about how Republicans have abused their majority position in Congress to rule the legislative process in the House with an increasingly iron — and often corrupt — fist. Backroom deals, closed debates, abuse of legislative traditions, and procedural skullduggery are now the rule rather than the exception.Needless to say, these are all things that Democrats were guilty of when they were in power too. But are Republicans just returning Democratic favors or are they really worse than the Democrats ever were? You should read the whole story to get the true flavor of what's happened, but to me the real strength of the Globe analysis is that they dug up hard numbers to answer that question. Here they are: For the entire 108th Congress, just 28 percent of total bills have been open to amendment — barely more than half of what Democrats allowed in their last session in power in 1993-94. Congressional conference committees, made up of a small group of lawmakers appointed by leaders in both parties, added a record 3,407 "pork barrel" projects to appropriations bills for this year's federal budget, items that were never debated or voted on beforehand by the House and Senate and whose congressional patrons are kept secret. This compares to just 47 projects added in conference committee in 1994, the last year of Democratic control. The Houe Rules Committee frequently decides bills in hastily called, late-night "emergency" sessions, despite House rules requiring that the panel convene during regular business hours and give panel members 48 hours notice. So far in the current Congress, 54 percent of bills have been drawn up in "emergency" sessions, according to committee staff members. Historically, bills have been given a three-day delay in between the time the Rules Committee reports them out and the House takes them up; that requirement has been waived on numerous occasions in recent years. While the House typically meets for 140 or more legislative days each year — reaching a recent historical high of 167 days in 1995, the first year of the Newt Gingrich-led GOP majority — it has met for legislative business just 97 days this year, with only five more days of work scheduled for the year. If no additional days are scheduled, the 102 days would be the lowest in decades.And we can add to that the Republican habit of keeping House votes open long past the normal 15-minute maximum. Democrats did this once in 1987 and Republicans screamed foul, even though that vote was held open for a mere extra 20 minutes and was due to an odd mixup, not a desire to bludgeon holdouts into changing their votes. Since the Republicans took over in 1994, they've held votes open past the 15-minute limit over a dozen times, climaxing in the infamous 3-hour vote at 3 am on the Medicare bill last year.So: are Republicans (a) just giving Democrats a taste of their own medicine? Or are they (b) genuinely more corrupt, more secretive, more bullying, and more power hungry than Democrats ever were?Answer: B. And it only took them ten years, rather than the 40 it took the Democrats.POSTSCRIPT: Conservative policy analyst Bruce Bartlett — who still has three weeks to change his mind about voting for George Bush! — is only willing to go so far as to say "Republicans have become the Democrats they overthrew in 1994," but he's pretty disgusted nonetheless.= www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
