HPR Online on the Help America Vote Act
Nightmare Redux?
Fast forward to the morning of Nov. 3, 2004....

"Fast forward to the morning of Nov. 3, 2004, the day after the next presidential election. You wake up, flip on the television, and are greeted by a pugnacious newscaster yelling that once again, we do not yet know who won...

In 2002, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Help America Vote Act. The legislation authorized over $3.8 billion in grants to states to replace outdated voting equipment with new electronic devices, train poll workers to use the new equipment, increase voter education efforts, and involve America's youth in the voting process by encouraging high school volunteerism at the polls. The legislation generated widespread praise and bipartisan support. Since then, however, supporters of election reform have faced an uphill battle....'

Here are some major points brought out in this article:

--Confronted with a half-trillion dollar budget deficit, a shaky domestic economy, and a costly war in Iraq, Congress and the White House are proving reluctant to appropriate the funds authorized by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

--Leading computer scientists have voiced concerns that the electronic voting devices to which many states are switching may be vulnerable to tampering.

--Progress has stalled. As of September 2003, 27 states still used controversial punch-card ballots, which were the focal point of a legal challenge prior to California's October recall election.

--Some civil rights groups are also raising concerns that the Help America Vote Act's (HAVA's) anti-fraud provisions will unintentionally prevent legitimate voters from casting their ballots.

This is what democracy-in-politics is all about. Reminds me of last night's debate in L.A...
I wanted to share this article with you because it is full of truth about the fact that, like him or love him, Kerry is being molded carefully by the media as the "annointed one". (In last night's Democratic debate in L.A., it seemed to me that all the moderators were doing was edging John Edwards out of the realm of nominee-possibilities by constantly telling him there were no differences between him and Kerry.)

The article discusses a media photo-shoot where Dennis Kucinich's entire being was obstructed (This reminded me of last night's Democratic debate in L.A. when Dennis finally got a token question thrown his way. When the cameras finally showed his face, it was totally obstructed by one of the moderators -Janet Clayton- who was rudely talking to Larry King as Dennis tried to give his reply!)

The article talks about the importance of voting in your state primary in order to get the delegates representing the ideas of candidates such as Dean and Kucinich to the Democratic convention. (Reminds me of Al Sharpton at the Democratic debate in L.A. last night. At every (rare) opportunity to speak, he stressed the same importance of delegational representation in the nominating process.)

Read the article..please. It makes a lot of realistic sense in this crazy all-too media-tinted world.

Harvard Political Review on Alan Dershowitz' book "The Case For Israel"

"It is unfortunate that the question "Is Israel the prime human rights violator in the world?", which should simply be dismissed out of hand, requires a serious answer in today's political climate. But however intuitively outrageous the question, it must be answered, and Dershowitz has done us a service with his calm and reasoned reply."

I think HPR's done a good job reviewing Mr. Dershowitz' latest book. I've read parts of this book already and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Israeli-Palestinian troubles. It's a well-reasoned explanation for the necessity of what many believe will be an eventual two-state solution.

Thomas Friedman imagines he's "getting real" on outsourcing....

"Yes, I want to be able to huff and puff about complex issues — like outsourcing of jobs to India — without any reference to reality. Unfortunately, in this life, I'm stuck in the body of a reporter/columnist..."
-Thomas Friedman

This is what I'd say to Mr. Friedman:

I'm stuck in my body, too, Mr. Friedman. Here's my problem with your column. You said

"...total exports from U.S. companies to India have grown from $2.5 billion in 1990 to $4.1 billion in 2002. What goes around comes around, and also benefits Americans..."

Unfortunately, you completely neglected to mention the fact that, despite the nice news about the exports, the U.S. trade deficit with India has still managed to soar to the tune of $8 billion or so. This being the real world and all, and being stuck in this writer's body (just like you), I felt compelled to mention that you either conveniently neglected to mention the monstrous deficit... or perhaps you overlooked the fact. Comparative advantage is fine if all reasonable attempts toward trade balance are ensured. In a dynamic economy there are supposedly plenty of ways that new jobs are created and old jobs are made obsolete. So I ask you, Mr. Friedman, where are the new American jobs? I agree we should trust individual initiative more than government programs to deal with those circumstances, but let's not assume that government intervention is not a realistic necessity here. Our American middle class is put into near-direct competition with second and third-world workers. If you have your ideological differences, Mr. Friedman, please discuss them within a reasonable economic framework and do not tell us we are not looking at the matter 'realistically." I see what could be a rush of American businesses to outsource jobs with too much arrogance about the eventual effects of a lack of reasonable trade equilibrium between nations. Billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett warned last November that allowing the trade deficit to grow amounted to transferring America's net worth abroad "at an alarming rate." I guess you don't recall that. At the going (growing) trade deficit rate, China's economy will surpass our American economy by 2041. I guess you don't know or don't care how cocky we're getting here in America about this issue. I guess you don't think too hard about that.
Jadoo Works sounds really cool and all, but you've missed some very important points in your nice slice of business-life tale.
Maybe you'll do better next column.
I really hope so.

"If a traveler tripped over a rock in their path 700 years ago, and from this event altered the course of their life, we might conclude the rock was only incidental. But if that same rock trips thousands, through the centuries, each walking away with a different message and a different lesson, then can we call this incidental?



When foolish people trip, they get up and walk away as if nothing happened. They learn nothing. A wise person will find a greater meaning for their fall. But a rock that trips travelers in every age, each time imparting a different meaning, that is not just a rock. That is God."

--Fihi Ma Fihi (Discourses of Rumi) translated by A.J. Arberry

For lo, the multitudes did gather in multiplexes across the land, as the prophets had foretold. And at last they beheld The Passion of the Christ, and did render unto Mel Gibson millions upon millions of dollars in ticket and merchandising sales.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today in history...


photo credit: angelfire.com

"Sunday a soldier of Company A died and was buried. Everything went on as if nothing had happened, for death is so common that little sentiment is wasted. It is not like a death at home."

-Elisha Hunt Rhodes, 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry
photo credit: angelfire.com


1862- Civil War, In camp with Elisha Hunt Rhodes

1935- Hitler organizes Luftwaffe

1993- A bomb built by a group of Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others


Today's Headlines and Opinions

GUILTY NEOCON FLIES THE COOP! The Prince of Darkness has left the building, leaving the lives of over 500 American troops and countless lives of Iraqi citizens (and no WMDs) in his idealistic wake. Here's his resignation letter.

U.S. lifts Libya travel restrictions after 23 years-Removal follows Tripoli affirming it was behind airliner bombing
Hello? Would that mean we'd open relations with Osama Bin Laden and/or the Taliban as long as he/they admitted to being the masterminds of 9-11? How would that sit with you as a parent of someone killed on 9-11?
Ask Susan Cohen what she thinks. Susan's the mother of Thea, a Syracuse University student who was killed at the age of 20 when
Pan Am 103 was blown from the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland in December, 1988. Susan has not forgotten that tragic day. Susan is aware that all Moammar Gadhafi has done is to "buy peace" from our nation. She's disgusted, and you know what? I cannot blame her. Libya's Prime Minister has admitted they needed to buy peace from the U.S.::
"After the sanctions and after the problems we have [been] facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed to compensation."
--Shokri Ganem, Prime Minister of Libya
In a recent Reuters article, Susan Cohen is quoted as saying: "For the Bush administration, Lockerbie is just an issue to get around. It is typical of the Libyans to say one thing one day and another the next," said Susan Cohen, whose daughter died in the bombing. She accused the administration of trying to "whitewash" Lockerbie and of making Gaddafi into a hero..."

Can the father be far behind? A son of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri , has been captured by Pakistani forces , one of Pakistan 's leading newspapers reported on Wednesday.

I hear the investigation's really heating up on this Rep. Nick Smith-Medicare-House of Representatives bribery case. The House Ethics Committee may not be the only investigators...I hear there may also be an ongoing criminal investigation.


Macedonia's president killed in plane crash


When I read this, my first thought was that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan isn't telling us anything we don't already know. While a lot of people would like to jump all over the messenger, conservative leaders Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, and Karl Rove have been talking about shrinking U.S. social programs for years. If we keep voting the GOP ticket, I don't see how we will be able to complain if and when markets sag and security nets disappear (and the Ken Lays are still thriving). Perhaps we will then know we've been officially bilked. The Boston Globe editorial on Greenspan's announcement says, in part:"No raid on retirees...Congress needs to find the money to keep Social Security solvent."

According to The Hill, Republicans plan to stage a lengthy Senate debate on Iraq today to respond to intensifying Democratic attacks on President Bush over his conduct of the war and its turbulent aftermath. The debate, is meant to catch the Democrats off-guard.

Also from The Hill, Senator Ted Kennedy has asked his staff to put together a case that he hopes will prove that President Bush’s recess appointment of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals was unconstitutional.

Political strategist Dick Morris says the only way President Bush will be re-elected in November is, basically, to continue to frighten us into electoral submisson.
Quote:

"He [Pres. Bush] must underscore the limits of his own success and focus upon the huge tasks and enormous dangers that lie before us. It is only by summoning the sense of national urgency — that we should, in fact, be feeling — that he can win.
Americans want Bush for one thing and one thing only: to lead us out of danger from terror. We don’t really think he is much good at anything else..."

What does it say about the Democrats that they appear to feel their best hope of winning is to ask the competition to politely bow out?

SAFIRE: Manipulating Bloviator Extraordinaire-
Seeing a prominent opiner such as Mr. Safire manipulating news of the actual developments on the war on terror will not help Americans make educated decisions. His own newspaper directly refutes him (almost daily) with a bothersome thing called "FACT", yet they continue to let him blather on. What does that say about the integrity of the Times? With recent journalistic failures such as Jayson Blair and Judith Miller, one would think they would try to be as ethical as possible.

Front-running presidential candidate John Kerry says he backs Massachusetts state ban on same-sex marriage
Quote: "If the Massachusetts Legislature crafts an appropriate amendment that provides for partnership and civil unions, then I would support it, and it would advance the goal of equal protection," the senator said yesterday, stressing that he was referring only to the [Massachsetts] state, and not the federal, Constitution. He has said he would oppose any amendment that did not include a provision for civil unions. "I think that you need to have civil union. That's my position," he said Tuesday.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Anti-Gay Proposals:
"The debate over this issue, the latest battleground in the culture wars that have so divided the nation, is more about politics than principle..Misusing the very constitutional documents that bind us together as a people doesn't protect marriage, it defiles and cheapens them."


Kucinich: "I do not view the media as a monolith. I know there are people . . . who want to do the right thing [and] others want to use their influence to achieve a certain outcome. I understand where that's coming from. I also know if I had a fraction of the coverage these other candidates have had, I'd be running away with the nomination."



credit: Get your War On

FYI: The Week magazine provides some basic information about
Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani

9-11 Shame...

"I can't understand why these elected officials, particularly the president and vice president, aren't willing to come before the American public and testify...That raises a concern they're hiding something."

--Kristen Breitweiser of New Jersey, whose husband, Ronald, died in the World Trade Center



The [9-11] commission has requested a 60-day extension, which would place the report date uncomfortably close to the 9/11-anniversary-timed Republican convention in September 2004. Obviously, the administration will do everything it can to avoid that, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has already announced that he "can't imagine a situation where they get an extension."

--Eric Alterman, January, 2004

~~~~~~~~~~~~~



9-11 families beg for proper investigation

Condi turns her back

Hastert turns blind eye on American victims for politics' sake

Stanford Daily Online: Osama in the house?

There is a valid complaint, in my opinion, that the American press on the whole doesn’t push hard enough than accepting the Defense Department’s press releases while, in most cases, the truth lies somewhere between the official military report and the story carried in the foreign press. As I've discussed here recently, two British papers, The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Express, have reported that Osama Bin Laden is surrounded by U.S. Special Forces in an area of land bordering northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Attributed to “a well-placed intelligence source” in Washington.) The writer of this article, Kathryn Wallace, explores the question:

"...you haven’t seen this reported in the U.S. press — not even the story that other press organizations are reporting an Osama capture. But does that mean the story is pure fiction?"

Ms. Wallace reminds us that embedded journalists in Iraq failed to check power while they were a little drunk on the idea of "playing soldier in the desert".

Today in history..


Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
photo credit: chicklit.com

"I am solitary as grass. What is it I miss?
Shall I ever find it, whatever it is?"

From: Three Women by Sylvia Plath

1956- Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes meet.

David Yount: 'The Passion' Preaches to the Choir

I ask myself: Why would I want to see this movie?

I haven't made up my mind about seeing this movie. I certainly can say, from all I've heard, I would not look forward to its content. Perhaps it stems from my Puritan ancestry, of which NY Times op-ed contributor Kenneth L. Woodward says: "To the Puritans, displays of the body of Jesus represented what they considered the idol worship of the Papists." Yet, I was raised a Catholic, and therefore I am in a bit of a theological conflict with myself over this film. I suppose, in the end, the inner conflict is brought about by my innate and unique Christian sensibility.

I ask myself:

Would I be going to entertain myself? Surely not. I've heard this movie, because of its graphic (possibly gratuitous) violence, might actually be agonizing for some people. I don't "do" violent movies as a rule. Why would I subject myself to a film I've heard, had it not been about Christ, would probably have gotten an NC17 rating?

Would I be going to learn something? Surely not...I've read the Gospels many times over. I know them as surely as I know my heart. The mysteries of Christ are my heart.

Would I be going in order to see Christ in a new light? Why? I have spent the better part of my life studying Jesus Christ. To see Christ looking like bloodied meat is a visual I know is not a scene to which I would subject my teenage child (who has taken part in Passion plays himself and has a wonderful understanding of the story). Why would I subject myself (knowing how a child would be tortured and haunted?) We are all innocent children at heart. I have made a shining and welcoming place for Christ in my heart which could not be made more perfect by seeing Him die all over again. The dying itself is allegedly shown so bloodily at the hands of mankind, which, in my opinion, may only raise feelings of distrust and disgust for our fellow man. Do we really need that in these treacherous and uncertain times in which we live? Will the core message be lost in the swirl of blood and sweat and human meat?

I ask Chist in meditation:

God has made man to die. By man came death, but God is all. No Roman, no Jew killed the Christ. Christopher Hitchens, in Vanity Fair, has said that God himself is to blame for Jesus' suffering and death. Scripture prophesied that Jesus would die. Since it was inevitable, it was no human fault.
We all will face our own personal death and will have to carry our own cross someday. It isn't my unavoidable death I wish to concentrate upon. It is the perfection of my soul that Christ wanted me to focus on every moment of my waking life. When I speak to Him in meditation about such matters as whether or not to go and see Mel Gibson's version of His bloody death, He tells me resoundingly: "Jude, stay home".

The only thing that would lure me to the theater is based upon sociological curiosity. (a motive, which, to my own way of thinking about theological philosophy, might be a personally sinful motive). Knowing that my fellow man (and woman) is seeing the film, I suppose I desire to understand how they may have been affected by it...and I could not be an effective commentator if I hadn't witnessed the thing with my own eyes.
We'll see.......
It's comments like this one that arouses the curious side of me:
"The movie just . . . made me feel like I was part of that crowd [at the crucifixion], like I was there . . . So much so that my chest is just caved in. It's awesome." [NY Post Feb 25, 2004]

Then again, when I see political-economic motives in moviemaking enter the picture, I once again shrink back into my innate Christian sensibility. When you think about how the film industry will realize the profits that have been forfeited over the years by creating films that were out of sync with the interests of the citizens of the red states....



~~~~~~~~~~~

Cragg Hines of the Houston Chronicle seems to be in agreement with the view of Christopher Hitchens that "whoever sought, carried out or acquiesced in the death of Jesus was an unwitting tool of divine intent." Hines believes that on Ash Wednesday (which marks the beginning of the Lenten season), "Christians are called to reflect upon their own lives and shortcomings and to repent the wrongs they have caused by word, deed or inaction. No controversy or distraction -- certainly not a movie that purports to be based on the Gospels -- should deflect Christians from the path of reflection to that of resentment." I can't help but to agree.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of resentment, here we go already....see "Jews Killed Jesus' Billboard Causing Controversy--Pastor Refuses To Remove Or Change Saying On Outdoor Marquee."

~~~~~~~~~~~

A 50-year-old Michigan man said, after seeing the movie:

"It's the most authentic version of the death of Jesus that I have ever seen."

My question: How on earth would he (or anyone) know?

Movies have a strange (and frightening) way of dictating their own reality to us en masse. I think this is my problem with this film. Do we really need a new Gospel "according to Mel"?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the same article, A Roman Catholic named Bade said: "I never knew the passion to be so cruel as it was portrayed in the movie...You better go see it with a strong stomach."

I'm sorry. This picture is not the one I personally would want to remember when I read the Gospels in the future.
It would be like seeing a photo of a loved one dead in their casket when trying to recall the light they brought to your life. Not healthy, people. Not healthy....

Did you know former Vermont governor Howard Dean is still on the ballot for all of the states that have yet to hold primaries?

For those Democrats who have been part of the Howard Dean movement and have yet to vote in your state's primary, you still have the ability to vote for him in your primary in order to send Dean delegates to the Democratic National Convention and to ensure his message will be heard.
I have been part of this passionate and exciting grassroots movement from the beginning and I plan to write more about it in the future. I think the impact Howard Dean has had on Democratic politics is going to someday be seen as historically important. Opinion columnist David Broder has written about it recently in an op-ed titled "Dean campaign will prove a milestone". I've noticed that, even though Dean's campaign is suspended, the pundits still love to talk about him. I'll tell you why I think that's true. There was an exciting story to be told..and that story has not simply withered and died because Howard Dean is not on the campaign trail. I would invite anyone reading this to take just a moment and view this video titled "Thank You, Howard."

I also bring to your attention an interesting opinion I read today about the fate of the Dean campaign titled "The Assasination of Howard Dean". The writer says the Democratic party is still waiting for a candidate who will help rediscover its soul.
I'm afraid Howard Dean was just that person...but he was "done in" by powers far greater than "the People". It makes you think...
Quote:

In the end, Dean threatened a troika of powerful institutions. He was a threat to the political parties (because he attacked Democrats' centrist drift), to media (because he criticised their cowardly reporting) and to big business (because he would roll back chummy tax-benefits for corporations). All three institutions responded with venom and destroyed Dean's candidacy. In 1968, a bullet ended Robert Kennedy's anti-establishment candidacy. In 2004, the methods used were more subtle, but just as effective.
[Daily Star Feb 25, 2004]

Walter Shapiro on the Bush promotion for a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage:

"The president declared Tuesday that "the preservation of marriage rises to the level of national importance." But it can also be argued that a vitriolic political debate over such a constitutional amendment rises to the level of a national distraction. After Sept. 11, two wars and a radical restructuring of the tax rates, America does not face a shortage of campaign issues. Instead the nation confronts the challenge of remembering our responsibilities in countries such as Afghanistan in the midst of an election that seems headed straight into Jerry Springer territory."
[USA Today Feb 24, 2004]

In the Houston Chronicle, Cragg Hines says:

It will be interesting to see when President Bush voluntarily next mentions his support for a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, the hunk of blood-red meat he threw to his mewling right-wing base on Tuesday. It will be a good gauge of how desperate he senses his chances of re-election have become...

....What if Bush had been talking about any other form of legalized discrimination and oppression, say, slavery, instead of a prohibition on gay marriage, how bizarre this paragraph would sound in the 21st century: "After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity."
[Houston Chronicle Feb 24, 2004]

A quote from President Bush in 2000 and a comment from author Peter Singer:

Q: So if a state were voting on gay marriage, you would suggest to that state not to approve it?

A: The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's [rights] issue like you're trying to get me into. … In my state of Texas, if we tried to have gay marriage, I would campaign against it.

--Candidate George W. Bush, in a presidential debate moderated by Larry King in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 15, 2000


"No genuine advocate of small government would seek to take from the states the right to decide whether people of the same sex can marry."

--Peter Singer, author of the new book titled "The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics of George W. Bush".

[Slate, Timothy Noah Feb 24, 2004]

What were you doing this past January 13th?



Did you know the planet Earth was minutes from an 'asteroid alert'?
Scientists now reveal they nearly warned Presidentent Bush of potential devastation.

FrontPage:
Karl Rove and Grover Norquist have not been very careful or apologetic about the financial contributions pouring in from those with questionable ties to radical Islam

"When asked by Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson if he thought radical Muslim groups such as the friends and associates of Khaled Saffuri were exercising "undue influence" at the White House, Karl Rove simply shrugged and replied, "No."

As evidence of Saffuri's ties to three prominent terrorist suspects deepens, say alarmed conservatives, those blanket denials may look to be increasingly hollow."

--Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight magazine

~~~~~~
Here's another case where Grover Norquist has shown that he rejects the rule of law in favor of playing politics. Many Republican senators (including Orrin Hatch and Bill Frist) are currently condemning two former aides who are being investigated for prying into Democrats' computer files. Some conservative leaders, including Norquist, are in disagreement. South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham has said to Hatch and Frist:

"The conservatives [such as Norquist and Paul Weyrich] who offer a justification for this based on politics have missed the boat. You have rejected a political defense to an unethical or legal wrong and the day that a political defense is accepted, then we are off track, because the rule of law goes."

Senator Graham sounds like a gentleman.
Then we have boorish Grover Norquist ( a poor excuse for a decent human being if I've ever seen one), of whom it is said:

".... Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says the rule of law doesn't apply here since the Democrats' files allegedly could be accessed on the committee computer network without any "hacking" or purloined passwords.
"If someone had really broken in and stolen their stuff, we would have no truck, but that is simply not the case," said Norquist. "They left these memos on an open server. If you wander around naked all the time, someone is going to see you naked."

Ugh.
What a creep.

Homeland Suck-urity:
Duh-ooo we really have brains?

Washington Post/ Steve Coll
Ghost Wars: The CIA and Osama bin Laden, 1999-2001
Flawed Ally Was Hunt's Best Hope
Afghan Guerrilla, U.S. Shared Enemy

This is Part Two of the series I mentioned earlier this week.

See Part One: Pre-9-11: Who tried to stop bin Laden? Why did they fail?

Washington Post/Dana Milbank
White House Forecasts Often Miss The Mark

Jesus the Palimpsest


"...while public furor in the United States "has always been over the `authenticity' of the Hollywood Jesus, the overlooked issue is really what this Jesus says about America, where we are and where we are going."

--Professor Steve Humphries-Brooks, who teaches a course called "Celluloid Savior" at Hamilton College in Upstate NY


*see: palimpsest