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6:59 AM | link
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4:29 PM | link
[Stephen Eagle Funk] became concerned about the reasons for the conflict in Iraq. "This war is very immoral because of the deception involved by our leaders. It is very hypocritical...War is about destruction and violence and death. It is young men fighting old men's wars. It is not the answer, it just ravages the land of the battleground. I know it's wrong but other people in the military have been programmed to think it is OK."
8:44 AM | link
And of course we are all happy to learn that the Bush administration plans to provide universal health care and massive school construction for postwar Iraq, while simultaneously cutting health and education funding here at home.
Those of you who feel an impulse to raise your hand and ask, "Uh, what about us?" are just being selfish. If we get universal health care and massive school construction (between one-third and one-half of all American schools are somewhere between dilapidated and flat falling apart), why then, Bush couldn't afford to give a $350 billion tax cut to the richest 1 percent of Americans. You see how selfish you're being?
8:49 AM | link
Critics of such systems say that they are vulnerable to tampering, to human error and to computer malfunctions -- and that they lack the most obvious protection, a separate, paper receipt that a voter can confirm after voting and that can be recounted if problems are suspected..."They're avoiding computational realities. That's the computer science part of it. We can't avoid it any more than physical scientists can avoid gravity."Not only that, but Dave points out that these voting machine companies are owned by or being bought up by right-wing interests. Just one example is Chuck Hagel in Nebraska:
Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska.Travis County recently switched over to electronic voting machines called "eSlates" made by a company called Hart InterCivic. So I decided to do a little research and find out which political campaigns the board members of the company had donated to:
10:10 PM | link
Edward R. Murrow had a quote on his wall in his office from Thoreau in which he said to speak the truth, you need two people. One to speak it and one to hear it. And I think that sums up the relationship not only between the military and the press but the press and the American people. You know, the press often is reporting factual matters. And the public sometimes turns away from it. We entered this war, with upwards of half the people in the country believing that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attack...how did that happen?So what's the answer to this great chicken-and-egg story? Did our attention spans wane long before this war was even a twinkle in Bush's eye? Or has this culture of conglomerated, big-money media caused us to lose interest?
Was that the media's fault? Was it the government's fault for putting out the stories? Or is the public sometimes not receptive so that the media can expose things? ...the public wants to believe what the public wants to believe.
10:30 PM | link
Mike Hawash is one of us. He is an American who just happens to be Muslim and of Middle Eastern descent. The authorities have in no way proved that Mr. Hawash has committed any crime or that he is a flight risk. They have, by all appearances, simply snatched him up and put him in jail.So please contact your representatives and ask that the US government charge Mr. Hawash with a crime, have him testify in court as a material witness as quickly as possible, or release Mr. Hawash. [via BookBlog]