There are only 18 days to go until the national
referendum on the COMPETENCE, CHARACTER and
CREDIBILITY of the _resident, the VICE _resident and
the US regimestream news media that shields them from
the TRUTH and CONSEQUENCES of their abomination...At
least five more US soliders have died in Iraq. For
what? The neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges Reich.
And yet, the USregimestream news media is attempting
to suck the national discourse down into the Cheney
family's faux indignation...Here are SIX stories about
what is really going on in this election struggle, and
about what is really at stake...Please read them and
share them with others. Please vote and encourage
others to vote. Please rememeber that the US
regimestream news media does not want to inform you
about this campaign, it wants to DISinform you...It is
a full partner in a Triad of shared special interest
(i.e. energy, weapons, media, pharmaceuticals,
chemicals, tobacco, etc.) with the Bush Cabal and its
wholly-owned-subsidiary-formerly-known-as-the-Republican-Party...There
is an Electoral Uprising coming at the Ballot Box...We
have all crossed the Rubicon...It is nothing less than
the Republic itself that is at stake...They cannot
steal it if enough of us vote...
Paul Krugman, NY Times: Earlier this week former
employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the
name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the
Republican National Committee to register voters, told
a Nevada TV station that their supervisors
systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and
appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal
investigation into reports of similar actions by
Sproul in Oregon.
Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing
wrong - and that besides, Democrats do it, too. But
there haven't been any comparably credible accusations
against Democratic voter-registration organizations.
And there is a pattern of Republican efforts to
disenfranchise Democrats, by any means possible.
Some of these, like the actions reported in Nevada,
involve dirty tricks. For example, in 2002 the
Republican Party in New Hampshire hired an Idaho
company to paralyze Democratic get-out-the-vote
efforts by jamming the party's phone banks.
But many efforts involve the abuse of power. For
example, Ohio's secretary of state, a Republican,
tried to use an archaic rule about paper quality to
invalidate thousands of new, heavily Democratic
registrations.
That attempt failed. But in Wisconsin, a Republican
county executive insists that this year, when everyone
expects a record turnout, Milwaukee will receive fewer
ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for
chaos at polling places serving urban, mainly
Democratic voters.
And Florida is the site of naked efforts to suppress
Democratic votes, and the votes of blacks in
particular...
In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg
Palast, who originally reported the story of the 2000
felon list, reveals that few of those wrongly purged
from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter
lists. State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles
for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending
on the county, those attempting to get their votes
back have been required to seek clemency for crimes
committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial
proceedings to prove that they are not felons with
similar names...
The important point to realize is that these abuses
aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a
Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that
distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a
culture that will persist until voters - whose will
still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold
that party accountable.
Associated Press: The mayor has requested more ballots
for the Nov. 2 election, but the county executive has
refused to provide them, citing concerns about voter
fraud.
Mayor Tom Barrett complained that the 679,000 ballots
the county agreed to print were less than the number
prepared for elections in 2000 and 2002. He asked for
almost 260,000 additional ballots, expecting a large
turnout next month.
But in a letter, Milwaukee County Executive Scott
Walker said he had ``serious questions'' about the
need for that many ballots because the city reported
having 382,000 registered voters in September. He said
``chaos'' could occur at understaffed polling places
where voters could grab ballots.
City officials said the request for additional ballots
was an effort to prevent shortages because some wards
have run out in the past. They say some ballots will
be ``spoiled'' by voters' mistakes, and Wisconsin's
same-day voter registration makes turnout
unpredictable.
``I'm going to lay this at the footsteps of the county
if there aren't enough ballots in the city,'' Barrett
said.
ROBIN ERB, Toledo Blade: They didn't take the box of
petty cash or other computers. They bypassed portable
radios, a television, and a microwave.
And a pop machine, illuminating an otherwise dark room
in what would seem to be a beacon to any ordinary
burglar, remained untouched.
Instead, what overnight thieves took from Lucas County
Democratic Headquarters were financial data, volunteer
rolls, Election Day strategy, and other sensitive
information just three weeks before voters head to the
polls...
Three computers were taken sometime between 11 p.m.
Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday, apparently by an intruder
who broke a side window.
One of the computers belonged to office manager
Barbara Koonce, who was responsible for names and
addresses of hundreds of party members, volunteers,
and candidates, a master schedule for all candidates'
events, and financial information.
It also included a list of registered Democrats -
information that had been analyzed as part of the
Democrats' campaign strategy, Ms. Koonce said.
"So for example, if I wanted to target
African-American voters in Ward 10 now, I no longer
have that list," she said.
Norwegian Chief, www.dailykos.com: There are two high
profile voter suppression and intimidation situations
taking place in Nevada right now.
1.0 VOTER REGISTATION FRAUD
This week, Channel 8 Investigative Reporter George
Knapp, broke a story about a company that sought to
register only Republican voters and destroyed voter
registration forms completed by Democrats.
It was exposed that this group hired and trained
employees to solely register Republican voters and
walk away from anyone who considered registering
Democrat.
Even more shocking is the fact that voter registration
forms that were checked Democrat were torn up and
thrown in the trash.
Eric Russell, a former employee of Voters Outreach of
America, said he saw his boss destroy forms and came
forward to shine the spotlight on this problem. The
televised investigation also featured an individual
who, when shown a copy of a completed registration
form that had been destroyed, confirmed the form was
his.
2.0 VOTER SUPPRESSION
On Friday, October 8, Dan Burdish, the former director
of the Nevada Republican Party attempted to throw out
the voting rights of 17,000 Clark County Citizens.
Dan Burdish admitted in the Las Vegas Review Journal
he is "looking to take Democrats off the voter rolls."
[Las Vegas Review Journal, 10/10/04]
The 17,000 votes the GOP is trying to throw away
belong to people who have been categorized as
"inactive voters".
Molly Ivins, www.workingforchange.org: Now is the time
for all good men -- and women -- to race to the aid of
their country. Liberals and libertarians unite! The
Sinclair Broadcasting Group, with their biased
"documentary" on John Kerry, has moved this election
into the realm of creeping fascism, state propaganda,
Big Brother and brainwashing. What me, hyperbole?
This is SO simple -- how would you conservatives feel
if NBC, CBS or ABC decided to pre-empt primetime
programming a week before the election to air Michael
Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And then announced, "But
we've offered President Bush a chance to reply"?
Sinclair has also offered President George W. Bush the
inestimable service of diverting attention from his
record and is using OUR publicly owned airwaves to do
it.
For Sinclair's lobbyist and on-air editorialist Mark
Hyman to claim this long attack ad is "news" is
ludicrous -- almost as strained as his claim,
somewhere between infelicitous and crackers, that
those who disagree are like "Holocaust deniers."
Mark Moford, S.F. Gate: There was Oprah, doing what
she does so freakishly well, cheerleading and
extolling and impressing upon, getting women up and
getting them angry and demanding that they exercise
their hard-won right to vote and demanding that they
quit dissing their feminist ancestors, the ones who
worked so damn hard for suffrage and for freedom of
choice and for the right to tell powerful sexist
Republican men where they can shove their repressive
sexist antichoice bigotry.
This was her fabulous, much-needed message: Take your
rights for granted at your peril, ladies. Move, or
else. Choose how you want the laws to treat and
respect you and your body -- or someone else, someone
who hasn't touched a vagina for 30 years and who
thinks sex is only tolerable in the dark, fully
clothed and with a respectable prostitute, will choose
for you...
Imagine Bush filches another election in November.
Nations mourn, black clouds gather, children cry,
colons spasm, the remaining shreds of the American
experiment wither and die.
And within a very short time, as many as 30 U.S.
states have recriminalized abortion and made
repressing women and hating sex fun again, as young
American females everywhere who thought their right to
choose was pretty much incontrovertible and
indisputable and unfailing and who therefore didn't
bother to vote in '00 or '04 suddenly go, oh holy
freaking hell.
Hello, 1950s. Hello, coat-hanger surgery. Hello,
millions of despondent daughters of uptight parents.
Hello, dead or mutilated teenage girls who suffer
botched procedures. Hello, a fresh national nightmare,
revisited, regurgitated, reborn. And hello again to
smug right-wing males who've wanted to put women back
in their place for the past 50 years. Check that: 200
years. Check that: forever.
Just a silly nightmare? Utterly impossible? A
ridiculous liberal daydream? Not even close,
sweetheart.
It's all about the Supreme Court, of course. Fact is,
our next president will almost surely get to appoint a
number of new high-court justices to replace those who
will likely retire after enduring Bush's toxic first
term. They hung in there, these few -- especially
stalwarts Sandra Day O'Connor and moderate, pro-choice
John Paul Stevens -- hoping to disallow the nation's
highest judiciary from becoming overly stacked with
homophobic self-righteous right-wing neocon wingnuts
(hi, Justice Scalia!) who would have us revert --
morally, sexually, spiritually, misogynistically -- to
1953. Check that: 1853. Check that: 1353.
With the exception of nearly useless neoconservative
sycophant Clarence Thomas, not a single justice now
serving on the court is under 65. Many insiders say
Stevens, O'Connor and bitter old man William Rehnquist
(almost 80) are all likely to retire before 2008.
BushCo's chosen replacements could easily tip the
scales of the court the other direction, from its very
precarious 5-4 progressive tilt to a very sneering 6-3
conservative one, a court that would then very easily
overturn parts or even all of Roe v. Wade. Talk about
a malicious legacy.
Support Our Troops, Save the US Constitution,
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Restore Fiscal Responsibility in the White House,
Thwart the Theft of a Second Presidential Election,
Save the Environment, Break the Corporatist
Stranglehold on the US Mainstream News Media, Rescue
the US Supreme Court from Right-Wing Radicals, Cleanse
the White House of the Chicken Hawk Coup and Its
War-Profiteering Cronies, Show Up for Democracy in
2004: Defeat the Triad, Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?oref=login
Block the Vote
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: October 15, 2004
Earlier this week former employees of Sproul &
Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach
of America), a firm hired by the Republican National
Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station
that their supervisors systematically tore up
Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and
appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal
investigation into reports of similar actions by
Sproul in Oregon.
Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing
wrong - and that besides, Democrats do it, too. But
there haven't been any comparably credible accusations
against Democratic voter-registration organizations.
And there is a pattern of Republican efforts to
disenfranchise Democrats, by any means possible.
Some of these, like the actions reported in Nevada,
involve dirty tricks. For example, in 2002 the
Republican Party in New Hampshire hired an Idaho
company to paralyze Democratic get-out-the-vote
efforts by jamming the party's phone banks.
But many efforts involve the abuse of power. For
example, Ohio's secretary of state, a Republican,
tried to use an archaic rule about paper quality to
invalidate thousands of new, heavily Democratic
registrations.
That attempt failed. But in Wisconsin, a Republican
county executive insists that this year, when everyone
expects a record turnout, Milwaukee will receive fewer
ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for
chaos at polling places serving urban, mainly
Democratic voters.
And Florida is the site of naked efforts to suppress
Democratic votes, and the votes of blacks in
particular.
Florida's secretary of state recently ruled that voter
registrations would be deemed incomplete if those
registering failed to check a box affirming their
citizenship, even if they had signed an oath saying
the same thing elsewhere on the form. Many counties
are, sensibly, ignoring this ruling, but it's apparent
that some officials have both used this rule and other
technicalities to reject applications as incomplete,
and delayed notifying would-be voters of problems with
their applications until it was too late.
Whose applications get rejected? A Washington Post
examination of rejected applications in Duval County
found three times as many were from Democrats,
compared with Republicans. It also found a strong tilt
toward rejection of blacks' registrations.
The case of Florida's felon list - used by state
officials, as in 2000, to try to wrongly
disenfranchise thousands of blacks - has been widely
reported. Less widely reported has been overwhelming
evidence that the errors were deliberate.
In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg
Palast, who originally reported the story of the 2000
felon list, reveals that few of those wrongly purged
from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter
lists. State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles
for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending
on the county, those attempting to get their votes
back have been required to seek clemency for crimes
committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial
proceedings to prove that they are not felons with
similar names.
And officials appear to be doing their best to make
voting difficult for those blacks who do manage to
register. Florida law requires local election
officials to provide polling places where voters can
cast early ballots. Duval County is providing only one
such location, when other counties with similar voting
populations are providing multiple sites. And in Duval
and other counties the early voting sites are miles
away from precincts with black majorities.
Next week, I'll address the question of whether the
votes of Floridians with the wrong color skin will be
fully counted if they are cast. Mr. Palast notes that
in the 2000 election, almost 180,000 Florida votes
were rejected because they were either blank or
contained overvotes. Demographers from the U.S. Civil
Rights Commission estimate that 54 percent of the
spoiled ballots were cast by blacks. And there's
strong evidence that this spoilage didn't reflect
voters' incompetence: it was caused mainly by
defective voting machines and may also reflect
deliberate vote-tampering.
The important point to realize is that these abuses
aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a
Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that
distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a
culture that will persist until voters - whose will
still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold
that party accountable.
E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4548203,00.html
Milwaukee Extra Ballot Request Rejected
Wednesday October 13, 2004 5:01 PM
MILWAUKEE (AP) - The mayor has requested more ballots
for the Nov. 2 election, but the county executive has
refused to provide them, citing concerns about voter
fraud.
Mayor Tom Barrett complained that the 679,000 ballots
the county agreed to print were less than the number
prepared for elections in 2000 and 2002. He asked for
almost 260,000 additional ballots, expecting a large
turnout next month.
But in a letter, Milwaukee County Executive Scott
Walker said he had ``serious questions'' about the
need for that many ballots because the city reported
having 382,000 registered voters in September. He said
``chaos'' could occur at understaffed polling places
where voters could grab ballots.
City officials said the request for additional ballots
was an effort to prevent shortages because some wards
have run out in the past. They say some ballots will
be ``spoiled'' by voters' mistakes, and Wisconsin's
same-day voter registration makes turnout
unpredictable.
``I'm going to lay this at the footsteps of the county
if there aren't enough ballots in the city,'' Barrett
said.
By law, the county pays for and prints ballots.
Barrett and Walker both hold nonpartisan offices, but
Walker is a state co-chairman of President Bush's
campaign, and Barrett is state co-chairman of Sen.
John Kerry's campaign.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041014/NEWS03/410140405/-1/NEWS
Article published Thursday, October 14, 2004
Burglars left plenty in political break-in
Most loot untouched at Democratic office
By ROBIN ERB
BLADE STAFF WRITER
They didn't take the box of petty cash or other
computers. They bypassed portable radios, a
television, and a microwave.
And a pop machine, illuminating an otherwise dark room
in what would seem to be a beacon to any ordinary
burglar, remained untouched.
Instead, what overnight thieves took from Lucas County
Democratic Headquarters were financial data, volunteer
rolls, Election Day strategy, and other sensitive
information just three weeks before voters head to the
polls.
But for all of its apparently political intent, the
break-in at 1817 Madison Ave. this week is most likely
a simple felony.
"It's probably a burglary, maybe a breaking and
entering," Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said
yesterday.
Officials of both the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys
Office agreed, saying they will monitor the situation
but do not believe a federal crime was committed.
Still, what could be a low-degree felony continued to
cause headaches yesterday for Democrats.
Three computers were taken sometime between 11 p.m.
Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday, apparently by an intruder
who broke a side window.
One of the computers belonged to office manager
Barbara Koonce, who was responsible for names and
addresses of hundreds of party members, volunteers,
and candidates, a master schedule for all candidates'
events, and financial information.
It also included a list of registered Democrats -
information that had been analyzed as part of the
Democrats' campaign strategy, Ms. Koonce said.
"So for example, if I wanted to target
African-American voters in Ward 10 now, I no longer
have that list," she said.
Also taken was a laptop belonging to Roger Sanders, a
volunteer attorney from Texas working with the Victory
2004 campaign in space that was leased by the
Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign.
The group, which Dems have assigned responsibility for
ensuring election integrity, plans to station
attorneys at every polling site in Lucas County on
Election Day.
Mr. Sanders had been matching as many as 212 local and
out-of-town attorneys to specific polling stations
Nov. 2. That information was stolen, he said, as were
e-mails discussing strategies for counter-attacking
subtle measures that could turn voters away from the
polls.
Still, Mr. Sanders said, the burglary has had an
upside: Volunteers have responded with help and a
local computer consultant dropped off several of his
personal computers yesterday for indefinite loan to
the Democrats.
Contact Robin Erb at:
robinerb@theblade.com
or 419-724-6133.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/14/13749/196
LATEST UPDATE ON NEVADA SITUATION
by Norwegian Chef
Thu Oct 14th, 2004 at 17:07:49 GMT
BACKGROUND: There are two high profile voter
suppression and intimidation situations taking place
in Nevada right now.
1.0 VOTER REGISTATION FRAUD
This week, Channel 8 Investigative Reporter George
Knapp, broke a story about a company that sought to
register only Republican voters and destroyed voter
registration forms completed by Democrats.
It was exposed that this group hired and trained
employees to solely register Republican voters and
walk away from anyone who considered registering
Democrat.
Even more shocking is the fact that voter registration
forms that were checked Democrat were torn up and
thrown in the trash.
Eric Russell, a former employee of Voters Outreach of
America, said he saw his boss destroy forms and came
forward to shine the spotlight on this problem. The
televised investigation also featured an individual
who, when shown a copy of a completed registration
form that had been destroyed, confirmed the form was
his.
But what is most disturbing is that the investigation
pointed out that Voter Outreach of America was being
paid by the Republican National Committee. Now, as a
result of the desire of Republicans to steal this
election, thousands of voters may have lost one of the
most fundamental rights of our country, the right to
vote.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) paid to
solely register Republican voters in Nevada. A
Chandler, Ariz., political consulting firm, Sproul &
Associates, was hired by the Republican National
Committee to register Republicans in Nevada, according
to the Associated Press. According to FEC filings,
since July 14, 2004, Sproul and Associates has
received $488,959 form the RNC.
This Classified ad from the RNC ran in the Reno
Gazette Journal:
8.50/hr part-time,
$10.00/hr full-time
Canvassing Neighborhoods in Support of the GOP!
Voter's Outreach of America is hiring door-to-door
canvassers asking people to register to vote. Must be
at least 18 yrs of age, no felonies, registered to
vote and have own transportation. Need good
communication skills and professional appearance.
Hours are 4pm to 8pm Monday-Friday and 8am to noon
Saturday.
Call toll free 702-307-1320 for more information.
Paid for by the Republican National Committee.
www.gop.com
any candidate or candidate's committee.
Source - Reno Gazette Journal - Reno, NV
NEVADA DEMOCRATIC PARTY FILES LAWSUIT
Nevada State Democratic Party files lawsuit. NSDP
filed a lawsuit near the close of business on
Wednesday, October 13.
The suit filed by the Party seeks to allow Larry
Lomax, the Clark Counter Registrar of Voters, to
re-open voter registration to victims of Voters
Outreach of America.
The suit alleges the company violated four Nevada
laws:
NRS 293.5045 (b) whichprohibits anyone engaging in the
registration of voters from taking anyaction to
discourage an applicant from registering to vote.
NRS 293.805 which prohibitscompanies from paying
individuals based on the number of forms theysubmit.
Voters Outreach of America deducted employee pay if
theyregistered Democrats to vote.
NRS 293.505 (12) whichprecludes the alteration or
defacing of a voter registration applicationthat has
been signed by a registrant.
NRS 293.710 (d) because the actof destroying completed
Democratic voter registration forms constitutesvoter
intimidation and voter fraud.
It is difficult to know how many people may have been
victimized by this company. Voters Outreach of
America was in business for at least 50 days, and it
is unknown how many Democratic voter registrations
were destroyed during that period. It is also unknown
how many people were turned away in malls and other
public venues where the company registered voters.
We are waiting for a hearing.
Additionally, in Washoe County the voter Registrar has
called for an investigation into alleged widespread
voter registration fraud by Republican front groups.
Diaries :: Norwegian Chef's diary ::
2.0 VOTER SUPPRESSION
On Friday, October 8, Dan Burdish, the former director
of the Nevada Republican Party attempted to throw out
the voting rights of 17,000 Clark County Citizens.
Dan Burdish admitted in the Las Vegas Review Journal
he is "looking to take Democrats off the voter rolls."
[Las Vegas Review Journal, 10/10/04]
The 17,000 votes the GOP is trying to throw away
belong to people who have been categorized as
"inactive voters".
Inactive voters still have the right to vote in Clark
County. They have only been moved to that category
because the Clark County Election Department's efforts
to reach them by mail were unsuccessful. But, again,
they still have the legal right to vote.
Burdish filed a challenge with Clark County Voter
Registrar Larry Lomax. Mr. Lomax referred the
challenge to the District Attorney's office. The DA
rejected the challenge and said that it would have to
be filed by an individual living in the precinct of
the challenged voter.
Desperate Republican times call for desperate
Republican measures to suppress the vote. This
situation is regrettable, but not surprising.
Republicans are using these same tricks and pressure
tactics in other Southwestern states and across the
country.
VOTER RIGHTS PROJECT
We saw it in Florida, now we're seeing it here,
Republicans want to steal this election. We won't let
that happen.
This is an election about serious life and death
issues and it is critical that every person who wants
to vote can do so without interference and with
confidence that their vote will be counted. We must
work together to promote voting and voting rights. So
the Nevada State Democratic Party has launched a
statewide "Voter Rights Project". Our efforts are in
conjunction with the Kerry-Edwards Campaign and the
Democratic National Committee.
The goal - a voting rights attorney in every priority
precinct in the battleground states
We have created the world's largest virtual law firm
in the country dedicating to promoting and protecting
the vote.
We have a Kerry-Edwards counsel in every state and
every key county in Battleground states to protect
voting rights on election day.
We have hired DNC Voting Protection Coordinators in
every battleground state to design and implement
voting rights and election protection plans.
Nationally, we will have thousands of Volunteer Voting
Rights Attorneys in every priority precinct on
Election Day.
>From now until election day, we are conducting
intensive trainings on line, in battleground states
and in coordination with our field staff.
We will promote Early Vote and Vote By Mail and
protect voters who vote early or by mail.
We are investing record amounts in voter education and
empowerment via Mail, Phones, Print and Electronic
Media
DNC and VPC lawyers are reviewing the ballots in every
priority county and state to make sure ballots are
clear and easy to vote.
Our Kerry-Edwards, DNC, and VPC lawyers are also
ensuring that election officials have made met all
bi-lingual requirements and have made appropriate
provisions so that disabled voters and older voters
can cast their votes.
We are working to ensure that everyone who is
registered can cast a ballot on Election Day by
fighting to ensure states and counties provide
provisional ballots so that everyone who is eligible
to vote is able to.
Today we will also launch a toll-free number that
voters can call if they feel their right to vote is
being threatened. We are encouraging people to call
this number if they feel they are a victim of voter
intimidation or if they see anything strange at any
point between now and Election Day.
The number to the Voter Rights Project Hotline is
877-WE-VOTE-2.
MESSAGE:
The Republican effort to intimidate citizens and
suppress the vote must not be allowed to succeed.
People must turn their anger into votes. You cannot
allow people who are trying to take away your right to
vote to win. Your vote takes away their power.
You won't see a lot of Republicans in minority
communities urging us to get out to vote - but sadly
you will hear a lot of Republican trash on the radio
and in the mail. Don't be confused, discouraged or
brought down by what they try. They are scared of the
power of your vote .
John Kerry and the Democrats will not stand by quietly
and let them stop you from voting for positive change.
We will be there to promote and protect your rights.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17871
Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
10.14.04 Printer-friendly version
Email this item to a friend
Most e-mailed stories
Creeping fascism at Sinclair
Don't look now, but your local network is a propaganda
machine
AUSTIN, Texas -- Now is the time for all good men --
and women -- to race to the aid of their country.
Liberals and libertarians unite! The Sinclair
Broadcasting Group, with their biased "documentary" on
John Kerry, has moved this election into the realm of
creeping fascism, state propaganda, Big Brother and
brainwashing. What me, hyperbole?
This is SO simple -- how would you conservatives feel
if NBC, CBS or ABC decided to pre-empt primetime
programming a week before the election to air Michael
Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And then announced, "But
we've offered President Bush a chance to reply"?
Sinclair has also offered President George W. Bush the
inestimable service of diverting attention from his
record and is using OUR publicly owned airwaves to do
it.
For Sinclair's lobbyist and on-air editorialist Mark
Hyman to claim this long attack ad is "news" is
ludicrous -- almost as strained as his claim,
somewhere between infelicitous and crackers, that
those who disagree are like "Holocaust deniers."
Sinclair Group is the perfect example of what's wrong
with the concentration of ownership in media: Just a
few companies now own almost all the major information
outlets. Sinclair is the largest owner of local TV
stations in the nation. It controls 62 stations in 39
markets and reaches at least 25 percent of Americans
every day, all day.
As FCC Commissioner Michael Copps noted in a 2001
decision: "Over the last several years (Sinclair) has
pursued a strategy of acquiring interests in or
management of more than one station in each market in
which it has a television station. In so doing, it has
continually pushed against the parameters of ownership
structures prohibited by the commission. With the
investigation before the commission today, Sinclair
has crossed the line into behavior that the majority
has found to violate the commission's rules. In
assessing a fine on Sinclair for this violation, the
majority purports to stop the expansion of Sinclair's
forays ... but in fact it merely points out that lines
have been crossed, while allowing Sinclair to run over
those lines and to continue its multiple ownership
strategy." Truer words were never written.
When Sinclair bought a second station in Pittsburgh,
it sold its existing station to the first station's
manager, an employee of Sinclair, on favorable terms,
and then proceeded to operate both. It repeated this
trick at least twice and then used a new one: The
president of Sinclair had his mother "buy" the new
station. The new corporation's stock was 70 percent
owned by his mother and the same station manager, who
then transferred control of these stations to
Sinclair.
Sinclair sends prerecorded right-wing editorial
commentary to its affiliates to be broadcast as "local
news." Sinclair's management has contributed hundreds
of thousands of dollars almost entirely to Republicans
(97 percent this year), as it continued to lobby for
looser ownership rules. The Bush administration is
pushing aggressively to remove those same rules.
The producer of the alleged "documentary," which is
actually just a very long Swift Boat Liars ad, makes
the same arguments and features some of the same
people as the thoroughly discredited short ads.
Carlton Sherwood, the ad's producer, was part of a
Gannett team that won the Pulitzer Prize for
investigative reporting in 1980, but he has since
moved far to the right and away from anything
resembling actual journalism. In 1986, he joined The
Washington Times, a right-wing daily owned by the Rev.
Sun Myung Moon. In 1991, he wrote a book "Inquisition:
The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun
Myung Moon," defending the self-described "Son of
God." Sherwood then went to work for then-Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Ridge, now homeland security director for
Bush.
I have not seen Sherwood's ad. I am relying on press
reports that its central thesis is that John Kerry's
congressional testimony in 1971 prolonged the Vietnam
War. Sure, the North Vietnamese would have surrendered
long before they never did, if it hadn't have been for
Kerry. Look, 14,000 more Americans died after his
testimony -- how many would it take to make that war
anything other than a mistaken horror?
The ad also alleges that Kerry impugned the good names
of all those who served in Vietnam. That is not only
false but malicious. I heard his testimony at the time
and have reviewed it since during this campaign -- it
is honorable and patriotic. I am also familiar with
the Winter Soldier hearings on which his testimony was
partly based, and they were just as he reported.
I am sick of the right wing claiming patriotism as its
exclusive purview. No one serves this country well who
blindly supports misbegotten wars in the name of
patriotism. The right to dissent is one of the
founding principles of this country and is in itself a
high form of patriotism. What you owe your country is
your best evaluation of whether we are or are not
going in the right direction.
As Huey P. Long once said, "Sure we'll have fascism in
America, but it'll come disguised as 100 percent
Americanism." Read more in the Molly Ivins archive.
Molly Ivins is the former editor of the liberal
monthly The Texas Observer. She is the bestselling
author of several books including Who Let the Dogs In?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/10/13/notes101304.DTL
As Oprah Slaps Bush
With 30 states poised to smack down women's rights
again, the one true savior emerges
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Oprah Slaps Bush - With 30 states poised to smack
down women'...
So there she was, the nation's most powerful and
popular public female, kicking butt on a recent
installment of her insanely beloved TV show with the
help of celeb guests (Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, P.
Diddy, Christina Aguilera) and galvanizing stunned
women across the nation to participate in this
election, or else.
There was Oprah, doing what she does so freakishly
well, cheerleading and extolling and impressing upon,
getting women up and getting them angry and demanding
that they exercise their hard-won right to vote and
demanding that they quit dissing their feminist
ancestors, the ones who worked so damn hard for
suffrage and for freedom of choice and for the right
to tell powerful sexist Republican men where they can
shove their repressive sexist antichoice bigotry.
This was her fabulous, much-needed message: Take your
rights for granted at your peril, ladies. Move, or
else. Choose how you want the laws to treat and
respect you and your body -- or someone else, someone
who hasn't touched a vagina for 30 years and who
thinks sex is only tolerable in the dark, fully
clothed and with a respectable prostitute, will choose
for you.
Sound like a cliché? Same ol' quasi-feminist rally
message? Not exactly. Not this time. Just imagine
this:
Imagine Bush filches another election in November.
Nations mourn, black clouds gather, children cry,
colons spasm, the remaining shreds of the American
experiment wither and die.
And within a very short time, as many as 30 U.S.
states have recriminalized abortion and made
repressing women and hating sex fun again, as young
American females everywhere who thought their right to
choose was pretty much incontrovertible and
indisputable and unfailing and who therefore didn't
bother to vote in '00 or '04 suddenly go, oh holy
freaking hell.
Hello, 1950s. Hello, coat-hanger surgery. Hello,
millions of despondent daughters of uptight parents.
Hello, dead or mutilated teenage girls who suffer
botched procedures. Hello, a fresh national nightmare,
revisited, regurgitated, reborn. And hello again to
smug right-wing males who've wanted to put women back
in their place for the past 50 years. Check that: 200
years. Check that: forever.
Just a silly nightmare? Utterly impossible? A
ridiculous liberal daydream? Not even close,
sweetheart.
It's all about the Supreme Court, of course. Fact is,
our next president will almost surely get to appoint a
number of new high-court justices to replace those who
will likely retire after enduring Bush's toxic first
term. They hung in there, these few -- especially
stalwarts Sandra Day O'Connor and moderate, pro-choice
John Paul Stevens -- hoping to disallow the nation's
highest judiciary from becoming overly stacked with
homophobic self-righteous right-wing neocon wingnuts
(hi, Justice Scalia!) who would have us revert --
morally, sexually, spiritually, misogynistically -- to
1953. Check that: 1853. Check that: 1353.
With the exception of nearly useless neoconservative
sycophant Clarence Thomas, not a single justice now
serving on the court is under 65. Many insiders say
Stevens, O'Connor and bitter old man William Rehnquist
(almost 80) are all likely to retire before 2008.
BushCo's chosen replacements could easily tip the
scales of the court the other direction, from its very
precarious 5-4 progressive tilt to a very sneering 6-3
conservative one, a court that would then very easily
overturn parts or even all of Roe v. Wade. Talk about
a malicious legacy.
It gets worse. It gets nastier, more widespread.
Because should Shrub swipe another term, he will also
be on his way to naming more federal trial and appeals
judges -- hundreds, by most counts -- than either
Clinton or Reagan, the last two-term presidents. Bush
could, in short and for all intents and purposes,
stack the nation's courts with enough neoconservative,
antichoice, antiwomen crusaders to make Strom Thurmond
giggle in his grave.
Which brings us straight back to Oprah. Say what you
will about the often weirdly effusive and overtly
gushy and often slightly smarmy woman who just gave
away 276 Pontiacs to her entire studio audience (hard
to tell if that was an act of astounding generosity
and beneficence, or some sort of weird punishment -- I
mean, they were Pontiacs), but the woman can electrify
and inspire and educate her millions of devoted
viewers like nobody's business.
And if there's one famously disenfranchised and
alienated and apathetic voting bloc that needs to get
off its collective yoga butt and stand up and make
itself known this election lest it lose an even larger
chunk of its basic human rights than it even realizes,
it's youngish women.
This is, after all, what so many women don't seem to
know. That the Bush administration has already, in
just a few short years, managed to roll back a truly
astounding number of their basic rights, making it
more difficult, for example, for doctors to perform
abortions, or making it illegal for schools to discuss
contraception or for hospitals to discuss
pregnancy-termination options.
>From demeaning and ineffectual abstinence-only
programs to biased counseling to cutting all funding
for international women's health organizations that
provide care to poor women in third-world nations
(hell, Bush hacked that one away in his first month in
office), Dubya has done more than any president in the
last 100 years to smack women upside their sexually
empowered heads.
Oh and by the way, that suggestion currently being
floated by some in Congress that the Iraq war has
become so nasty and desperate that we might very well
need to reinstate the military draft? That draft
includes young women. And oh yes, Bush has already
upheld the ban on abortions for servicewomen stationed
overseas, even if they were raped, even if they pay
for it themselves. Feeling patriotic yet?
This has been the GOP's message to women since, well,
forever: Be like Laura Bush -- submissive, matronly,
heavily shellacked and ever flashing a disquieting
mannequin grin, off in the corner reading stories to
the kids and cutting lots of pretty ceremonial ribbons
and keeping quiet about the Important Stuff and never
having sex and always be standing just out of the
spotlight, secondary and inferior and in the
background. You know, right where you belong.
Truly and sadly, few indeed are the powerful and
articulate public female voices in our major media to
counter this ideological poison. Who, Barbara Walters?
Not exactly hotly connected to youth and issues of the
day. Katie Couric? About as female empowering as a
terrier. Martha Stewart? Busy designing barbell cozies
for the prison gym. The wholly queasy pseudo-feminists
on the wholly awful "The View"? Please.
And while plethoric are the powerful women working
behind the media scenes, execs and pundits and
writers, senators and world leaders and even
forthright, independent wives, and while there are
plenty of strong-willed, outspoken female celebs
making their voices known, in terms of visibility and
raw power and sheer reach, nobody can touch Oprah.
Which is exactly why her message was so wonderful.
Here's the bottom line: 50 million eligible women
didn't vote in 2000, and 22 million of them were
single and nearly every one of them probably thought
their vote doesn't matter and it isn't really worth it
and who cares anyway because no matter who wins,
everything's still pretty much run by rich powerful
men anyway. Which is, you know, sort of true. But not
quite.
Because as Oprah knows, there are powerful men who get
it and who love women and who understand their issues
and who have cool articulate daughters and opinionated
self-defined multilingual firebrand wives (Hi,
Teresa), and there are aww-shucks antichoice Texans
with lifeless token wives who think your body is
government property and you should just pipe down and
keep your damn legs closed and go pray to an angry
Republican God to forgive your plentiful
vagina-induced sins.
Hey, it's your choice. But not for long.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.
Mark's column archives are here
Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every
Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate, unless it appears on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, which it never does. Subscribe
to this column at sfgate.com/newsletters.