I HEREBY CHALLENGE THE ELDERS

Posted By: DarrelWhitewolf

Date: Monday, 24 May 2004, 8:16 a.m.

I Darrel Whitewolf, elder of Cherokee decent, with this powerful
message, hereby challenge the elders of all native nations. I hereby
petition for the immediate release of sacred information to all
humanity concerned for the immediate future of their families and loved
ones.

At the risk of having many arrows shot in my direction, I send this
message.

I am an old warrior who is no stranger to battles.

It has been brought to my attention that the elders at this time are
preparing the last ceremonies. The Hopi who have no word in their
vocabulary for the future and are preparing to go underground. The
Ojibwa and the Lakota are saying that we are at the end. They say and I
quote "Go back and tell the people it is no longer the eleventh hour".
It is said that the blue star (katchina) has arrived and the "Purifier"
(a large celestial body) follows. It's time for the "CLEANSING" THE
"THIRD SHAKING".

It is time to tell the people about the arrival of the watchers from
the skies who don't look like us and the ones underground as well.
I have heard that White Buffalo Calf Woman has returned. I have been
told to teach the stories of creation and how we must become together
as one. This is not enough.

Chief Lookinghorse has delivered his messages at sacred sites all over
the world but it is still unclear to non indian people just what is
happening now, this very year, maybe even this very next month.

It is perfectly clear to me but who will believe one person?

It is not enough to quote verses from the bible. It is not enough to
tell the old stories. It is not enough to talk about the animals and
what it means when a certain one shows up in your life.

I think I can safely say that I speak for all readers here when I
challenge you for the plain and simple truth about what is about to
happen. No more Bible verses from the unbalanced cross brought by the
ones who stole our land, raped our women and killed our children. The
ones manipulated by the watchers.

No more old stories. No more codes.

People do not want to hear this nonsense any longer because time is too
short. I know that you know. I also know that there is still prejudice
in the hearts of some of you and you do not want non-indian people to
know these things.

It is time and the time is now for you to speak clearly and decisevely
in releasing the information needed for people of all nations to
prepare themselves practically, safely, physically and spiritually.

There is talk that the Pope is giving his final blessings. He speaks of
the fact that "Wormwood" (Planet X) has arrived. There is talk that
supposed astronomers are watching something large speeding toward
Earth. There is clear and unmistakable evidence that the skies day and
night have suddenly changed dramatically. The moon has changed its
orbit and appears in the west sky now when it rises. The stars are
turning around in the sky at night and moving slower. The Earth Mother
staggers like a drunk.

With great respect to the Creator, I bow to him in a humble way and ask
for guidance in these matters not for me but for my brothers and
sisters, my friends and families.

With great respect for the elders I ask you to put this knowledge forth
and  back up your words which say Mitakoye Oyasin. We are all your
brothers and sisters. Will you leave us behind, only knowing half
truths?

Grandfather forgive me if I have offended as this message comes from my
heart and the Spirit of Crazy Horse inside me speaking. Grandfather
forgive those who still hold contempt for the white man, the black man,
the red and the yellow.

We send our prayers to you with the smoke from the sacred pipe on the
wings of our brother Awahili, the Eagle.

I ask that you keep all of us here in your presense now and for ever.

Let the truths become clear to all.

Wado, Wakan Tanka, Aho

That is all I have to say.


Darrel Whitewolf

http://www.haveyouthought.com/ContactUs.htm


end




^^^
^^^


"LAST Ceremonies" forwarded by Millennium Twain

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeagueOfTheLastDays/



^^^
^^^


can't hardly see the screen, for all the tears!

apologies to anyone receiving this message twice!!


Millennium Twain







...

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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Thank you StandingWolf, Mischa!

Indeed, May our grandchildren live in Eden!




Millennium Twain




...




..

Fwd: 4th_Wheel@yahoogroups.com, GoldenMillennium@yahoogroups.com

>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>


brother Wu!


I've yet to uncover much on the internet
regarding the White Yang period -- largely what
I have posted from what my Tao teacher shared with
me. We entered the taoist/buddhist White Yang period --
which I sometimes refer to as the Golden Yin period --
in February 2003 -- with the birth of GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS,
in other parlance, the Hopi Blue Star.

The Maitreya Buddha.

Our Feminine Golden Millennium, as others refered to us
entering this last week of 8 June 2004. Our collective
body, SoverAnia.

Truly there are MANY enlightened individuals facilitating
our global heartmind growth and education at this
time ... yet none of the individuals, and certainly
not me, shine as does our global body!

And that is our daily work, individually and
collectively, to further the omniscience and
omnipotence of our global being refining!

Yawning, Stretching,




Millennium Twain

http://unamity.com/SoverAnia.jpg

>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



During this Great Period of the White Yang, Heaven will pick up those
who practice Dao sincerely and those awakened to the truth.

The arena of Dao in the Great Period of this White Yang is composed of
the truth and reason.

Now the time has come, so overcome idleness and refine yourself, for it
is your duty and responsibility to sanctify yourself. As all brothers
and sisters must help each other to perfect ourselves, you cannot
shrink from your responsibility. Facing the coming challenges, you must
go forward with even greater strength, finding new strength to succeed
even where you have never gone before.

Everyone must undertake this mission in similar fashion, and we all can
attain Dao and become Buddhas in this great Period of the White Yang.
This is also the hope and expectation of Heaven.



>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>






........






.......










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Any information reguarding this can be sent to.
Rua da Imprense,
4347, R/C Bloco 1-33
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Thank You

background article at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeagueOfTheLastDays/message/418


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


was long in yoga/meditation -- the falun dafa -- last night ...

imagining Santa Monica and Los Angeles, Auckland and
Tokyo, WITHOUT our mad automobiles and madder drivers.

without the violent need, and violating noise.


hearing the birds, the ocean -- feeling the
cool breeze on my face.

greeting our neighbors in loving salutation.
getting up and planting the walks and gardens
and playgrounds -- where once were asphault
roads and parking lots, slaughterhouses, and
industrial 'butcheries'!


what a beautiful life it will be when we/they you/me
bring an end to this house of cards -- this 'civilisation'
of fraud and rapacity.

for then we can dance, and our children sing --

and honestly share and globally create!


and no longer will we be haunted in every moment
by the death cries of whale and dolphin, redwood
and rainforest, brown baby and black child and
yellow enfant -- for the murderous oil machine.

leaving behind the pain, and blame ... walking
out of our cars one day a week, then two days ...
learning to breath!  walk!  bicycle!  garden!

truly love!!!

   only respect.


"give me love, give me love, give me ...

   peace on Earth ... "





Millennium Twain

green growing mindedness ...

walking 'out' of our televisions and automobiles ...


http://fireships.com
http://LivingLightHouse.Com
http://unamity.com/SoverAnia.jpg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aemortal/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheMessiah/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldenMillennium/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeagueOfTheLastDays/


in http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BigMedicine/ we
are coordinating volunteers who are stepping forward to
chronicle the Last Ceremonies and Last Statements of all
the worlds native/tribal/aboriginal peoples.  please join us
if you have native connections!


..........


now in our 508th day of global fasting
for world peace ...

http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/worldfast

..........

satyagraha -- fasting protest ...

Gandhi named this concept of action: "satyagraha"
(combining the Hindu words for "truth"
and "holding firmly.")

..........



.........






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We have an obligation to stop this fascist regime

read these articles (keeping in mind what he world thinks of Amerika):

'Secret film shows Iraq prisoners sodomised'

By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor
16 July 2004

Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at
the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first
revealed the abuses there.

Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker
magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But h=
e
added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reportin=
g
on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.

He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst
part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government =
at
war."

He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George
Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he
called "war crimes".

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=541756



Prisoner abuse cases still surfacing in Iraq
Authorities are still uncovering new cases of alleged abuse by U.S. soldier=
s.
BETH GORHAM, CP    2004-07-16 02:01:01  

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials are still finding cases of American soldiers
possibly abusing Iraqi prisoners in a scandal that threatens to hurt the re=
-
election efforts of President George W. Bush. John Warner, head of the
Senate armed services committee, revealed yesterday that while about 90 per=

cent of potential abuses in Iraq prisons are probably already being
investigated, there's more to come.

"We're still uncovering, as late as this morning, other incidents, other ca=
ses,
that will be promptly investigated by the Department of Defence," said Warn=
er.

"Each day it comes along -- new incidents, revelations of new incidents tha=
t
occurred in the past" which may contravene Geneva Convention rules
prohibiting physical and mental torture of detainees.

The scandal, which exploded in April with horrible pictures of soldiers
humiliating and abusing naked, hooded Iraqis, has been an election-year
nightmare for the Bush administration that admits it has tarnished America'=
s
reputation abroad.

Since then, leaked statements from some detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison have provided horrific accounts of being sodomized, beaten, forced t=
o
masturbate in front of female soldiers, fish their food out of toilets and =
sleep
naked in pools of water on cell floors.

Allegations also began to emerge about prisoners in Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where there were a rash of suicide attempts. And on
Wednesday, the International Red Cross said the U.S. might actually be
hiding prisoners around the world.

What's unclear about the Iraq prison abuse is how high up the blame should =

fall. Bush has called it the "disgraceful conduct of a few American troops"=
  but
others point to a systemic problem of condoning torture, with inordinate
pressure to secure useful intelligence from prisoners.

Warner's committee is trying to schedule a public hearing next week with Pa=
ul
Bremer, who headed the U.S. occupation in Iraq before an interim
government took over last month.

But more public hearings will have to wait until fall, said Warner, when th=
ey
won't jeopardize the rights of soldiers standing trial on abuse charges.

Meanwhile, court hearings, including one scheduled to start in August, will=

also highlight the scandal well before the Nov. 2 vote.

Seven soldiers have been charged, while several officers were reprimanded. =


The Red Cross had been privately warning of abuses at Abu Ghraib near
Baghdad since March 2003. U.S. officials finally launched a criminal
investigation in January after an American soldier complained.

Now several investigations are probing how the scandal could have
happened and who's responsible, including the role of military intelligence=

officers.

Asked if defence officials were aggressive enough in responding to Red
Cross findings, Warner said they were in most instances.

"But in several, I think there are some tough questions that are going to h=
ave
to be answered."

Everything possible is being done "to analyse what happened in the past and=

to prevent any recurrence in the future," said Warner.


http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/07/16/
544526.html


New cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq still surfacing

WASHINGTON: U.S. officials are still finding cases of American soldiers
abusing Iraqi prisoners.
John Warner, head of the Senate Armed Service Committee, revealed that
while some 90 per cent of potential abuses in Iraq prisons are already bein=
g
investigated, there are other cases that will be promptly investigated by t=
he
Department of Defence.
"Each day it comes along - new incidents, revelations of new incidents that=

occurred in the past" which may contravene Geneva Convention rules
prohibiting physical and mental torture of detainees.
The scandal, which exploded in April with horrible pictures of soldiers
humiliating and abusing naked, hooded Iraqis, has been an election-year
nightmare for the Bush administration that admits it has tarnished America'=
s
reputation abroad.
Warner's committee is trying to schedule a public hearing next week with Pa=
ul
Bremer, who headed the U.S. occupation in Iraq before an interim
government took over last month.
The Red Cross had been privately warning of abuses at Abu Ghraib near
Baghdad since March 2003. U.S. officials finally launched a criminal
investigation in January after an American soldier complained.

http://www.geo.tv/main_files/world.aspx?id=29915

'Secret film shows Iraq prisoners sodomised'

By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor

16 July 2004


Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at
the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first
revealed the abuses there.

Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker
magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But h=
e
added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reportin=
g
on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.

He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst
part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government =
at
war."

He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George
Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he
called "war crimes".


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472

FBI's Pre-Election Plan

Revolutionary Worker #1253, October 3, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org

Several months ago, some Bush administration officials publicly
floated out the possibility that the November presidential elections
might be "postponed" if there is a major "terrorist incident." Now, it
seems the FBI has formulated its own pre-election plan.

According to a September 17 CBS news report, the FBI is "preparing a
massive counter-offensive of interrogations, surveillance and possible
detentions." CBS reveals that "FBI field offices and Homeland Security
agencies will be advised of `extraordinary measures' that will go into
place `beginning the first week of October through the elections.' "

What is this "October Plan" supposedly a "counter-offensive" against?
The government claims that it is acting on "credible" intelligence
that al-Qaida is planning a serious attack in the period around the
elections--while leaving very vague what this intelligence information
is. Whatever the reality behind these warnings, the government is
using these "terror alerts" as justification to dramatically step up
police-state repression. This could be seen, for example, in the
extraordinary security measures against the protests at the Republican
National Convention in New York City.

According to CBS News, an internal FBI e-mail from the "04 Threat Task
Force" said the aim of the October Plan is "to foster the impression
that law enforcement is focused on individuals who may be a threat."

Who are these people that the FBI considers a possible "threat"? CBS
reports, "Specifically, the plan calls for `aggressive--even
obvious--surveillance' techniques to be used on a short list of people
suspected of being terrorist sympathizers, but who have not committed
a crime. Other `persons of interest,' including their family members,
may also be brought in for questioning." Agents will also visit
mosques and ask people "whether they've observed any suspicious behavior."

So the FBI is targeting "suspected" people who are on a "list" but
have not broken any laws--as well as family members and others who
have some kind of connection with those "suspects" and anyone else who
is accused of being "suspicious."

FBI officials apparently realize that their outrageous plan will spark
protests--and they have included this in their calculations. The CBS
report notes, "One element of the plan calls for addressing what some
officials fear could be a wave of protests from Arab-Americans and
civil libertarians once the so-called October Plan kicks in."
Targeting Immigrants and Protesters

The FBI's October Plan for massive surveillance and harassment is part
of an avalanche of measures leveled against immigrants and people
standing up to resist the moves of the rulers.

First came the roundups of nearly 1,000 Arab, Muslim, and South Asian
men just after 9/11. Shortly afterwards the FBI conducted 50,000
"interviews" of immigrants from various countries. Then came the
countrywide forced registration of immigrants. Another wave of
interviews followed, specifically targeting Iraqi immigrants in the
run-up to the war on Iraq.

Along with this has been the little-noticed moves by the FBI's
National Crime Information Center to include civil immigration data
into its database. The database--used by law enforcement throughout
the U.S.--is a central repository for local, state, federal, and
international criminal records. It is used by FBI agents as well as
state and local police, who can access it within seconds. According to
a suit filed against the government last year, since 9/11 the FBI has
been adding civil immigration data, such as orders of deportation, to
this "criminal" database. In short, the repressive "fencing" stretched
around the immigrant population within the U.S. is getting wider and
wider.

This widening repression also targets those who are stepping out to
protest. One example of this was seen during the weeks leading up to
the Democratic and Republican national conventions. FBI
agents--working with local police agencies through the Joint Terrorist
Task Force--systematically spread out throughout the country to
"interview" people planning to protest. The FBI drew up a list of
people who had been arrested at earlier protests. This, too, was cast
as an "anti-terrorism effort," and officials denied any attempt to
intimidate people. But clearly it was meant to send an intimidating
message to activists, to expand the chilling atmosphere against
dissent, and to recruit more snitches.

The FBI interviews and other threats did not stop over half a million
people from delivering a big NO to the Bush agenda in the streets of
New York City. But all this makes clear that the stakes are going up.
What Do Ted Kennedy and Cat Stevens Have in Common?

Another element of the grossly expanding machinery of repression was
recently highlighted in the news when Yusuf Islam--the singer formerly
known as Cat Stevens--was dragged off a plane by federal agents after
his name popped up on the government's watch list. The incident took
place in Bangor, Maine, while Islam, a British citizen, was flying
from England to Washington, D.C.

Although Islam, a convert to the Muslim religion, has made a public
stand against terrorism, the U.S. government considers him a security
"threat." He was denied entry into the U.S. and quickly sent back to
England. The U.S. media raised a big stink about the incident--not
about the outrageous treatment of Islam, but around the question "why
was he allowed on the plane in the first place"!

Among others on the same list that includes Yusuf Islam are U.S.
senator Ted Kennedy, a leading Democrat, and Georgia representative
John Lewis, a Black congressman and civil rights leader. Both have
been repeatedly stopped and screened at airports because their names
come up on the Transportation Security Administration's watch list.

****

The CBS News report on the FBI October Plan says that "Throwing
hundreds of agents on the street and conducting invasive surveillance
has become a standard post-9/11 tactic for the bureau." In other
words, people should just get used to such gestapo tactics and
consider them part of "normal life"! As Dick Cheney has declared,
there is a "new normalcy" in this country.

Those in power insist that "either you're with us or against us"--and,
from their standpoint, those "against us" include increasing numbers
of people, from thousands and thousands of immigrants, to whole
countries and peoples around the world, to those who take to the
street to protest their wars for empire.

Where is all this headed? For the sake of humanity, people of
conscience cannot afford to just wait to find out.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker
Online
http://rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497


article found at http://rwor.org/a/1253/fbi_election_plan.htm

Let's consider United State of Washington - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer














Saturday, September 25, 2004

Let's consider United State of Washington
By BRAD UPTON
GUEST COLUMNIST

Our intrepid leader, W, prides himself on being a man of strong faith.
It is no secret that he turns to God for guidance. If three hurricanes
in a row slamming into Florida right before the 2004 election isn't a
clear sign from the Almighty that he wasn't pleased with how things
went in that state in 2000, I don't know what is. Even George should
be able to interpret that sign!

This upcoming election is starting to scare the great citizens of the
state of Washington. A recent CNN poll on swing states showed that
Washington was the only state that supports John Kerry even more than
it supported Al Gore. Another recent survey showed that Seattle was
the most educated city in the United States. Correlation? Hmm. If the
rest of the more conservative, less educated citizens of the United
States decide that W is a great leader and he gets re-elected, it's
time for desperate measures.

Here's what we do and how we pull it off: We secede. That's right, we
leave the United States and become our own nation. Not forever, just
for four years, then we apologize and rejoin the union. First order of
business is finding a new name. Because we share our name with our
nation's (that's ex-nation's) capital, we are the only state in the
union that has to be preceded by the words "in the state of" or called
"Washington state" to avoid confusion over what Washington is being
discussed. It makes us sound like we all live on a campus in Pullman.

For this story I'm calling our new nation Cascadia ... we can vote on
it later. President Bush can't stop us from seceding. What's he going
to do? Go to war with us? That would be a political nightmare that
even the Bush administration could comprehend. Although we do have an
operating nuclear plant and probably the best nuclear scientists in
the world working at Hanford, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld may see us as a threat and
decide we need to be taken out. Think twice, Rummy, Wolfy, etc.

Here's where we got 'em: We lead the nation in the production of hops
and grapes; we are the home of Microsoft and Starbucks. Yeah, that's
right. We control the beer, wine, software and caffeine in this
country. Now who needs whom? Maybe you want to negotiate with us, or
we cut off the beer, wine, coffee and shut down all the computers. Did
I mention that we build all the jets that are produced in this nation?
Oh, yeah, we lead the nation in the production of both hydroelectric
and wind power. We export energy from Cascadia -- lots of it!

Lights? Heat? You might need those. Will you guys need any food?
Besides hops and grapes, Cascadia also leads the nation in the
production of apples, cherries, raspberries, lentils, pears, spearmint
and wrinkled peas. That's right, I said it: wrinkled peas, baby! We're
No. 1. We also make the top 5 list in apricots, peppermint, fall
potatoes, plums, wheat, barley and cranberries. Hungry? I thought so.
Oh, did I mention that Cascadia is also a leader in lumber, fishing,
cattle and dairy production? I'm telling you, they can't touch us! We
got what they need!

Imagine what Cascadia would be like if we took all our federal taxes
and kept them here. First, the price of jets, beer, wine, coffee,
food, energy and software will be going up in the United States. We'll
be rolling in dough. New Alaskan Way Viaduct? Done. Light rail from
British Columbia to Oregon? Done. New highways? Done. Universal
affordable health care? Done. Improved schools? Done. Everybody will
be employed in Cascadia's booming economy.

We will look like Eden to the rest of the country; flop sweat will
appear on W's head every time someone mentions Cascadia. It'll make
him crazy. He'll ask to come visit but since we are now an independent
nation, guess what? We tell him we're not interested. Millions of
people will want to move here, but since we are an independent nation
we only let in whom we want, when we want. Our property values
skyrocket! The conservative farmers on the eastside of Cascadia, who
initially hated the idea of secession, are all onboard when they see
the price their crops are bringing when they can start sending them
anywhere in the world.

Of course, we love being Americans. After four years, when we've fixed
and built everything we need, we tell the United States that we are
ready to rejoin. At that point we control the 2008 presidential
election. We simply tell the citizens of United States which president
we'd like to see in office and they vote him (or her) in, it's a done
deal. The new Democratic president comes to Cascadia to accept us back
in the union and everything is forgotten. Americans are now very well
aware of where their software, caffeine, beer and wine come from. And
we keep our new name -- just to be sure there's no confusion.


Brad Upton just celebrated his 20th year as a stand-up comedian and
48th year as a resident of Cascadia.




http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/saturdayspin/192345_secession25.html

I just heard someone tell me that there is a clause in financial aid
that if you are paying off your loans and that a military draft is
called you (the former student.. or a better name "the Indebted") can
be called to military service.  Has anyone looked into such clauses?
Of course most males have to register with selective service, but what
I heard is that this clause even says that you can be called because
of the contract.


just curious if anyone ellse knows of this.. or looked deeper into
those  documents we sign to get out of economic servitude and into a
different economic servitude.

these are some stories you may not here in the "mainstream" corporate
owned media (by the way do you think that Britney Spear's should have
gotten married?).  I personally think the Fascists are affraid to
bring our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends, co-workers and
  loved ones home!!! Because they know where we need to really
establish a democracy!  Here right now!  Also I have been saying the
goal of this Fascist regime is the humiliate and make dysfunctional
the national military services to eventually replace with Blackwater,
DynCorp, Titan and any other mercenary corp they can buy with loyalty
to the corporate elite.

this is a series of articles with links:


Sat 16 Oct 2004
  printer friendly4:53am (UK)
Iraq 'Mutiny' by U.S. Reservists under Investigation

"PA"
The US Army is today investigating up to 19 members of a supply
platoon in Iraq who refused to go on a convoy mission. Relatives of
the soldiers said the troops considered the mission too dangerous, in
part because their vehicles were in such poor condition.

The soldiers, reservists from a fuel platoon that is part of the 343rd
Quartermaster Company, delivers food, water and fuel on trucks in
combat zones.

The incident was first reported yesterday by The Clarion-Ledger
newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. Family members told the newspaper
that several platoon members had been confined, but the military did
not confirm that.

A commanding general has ordered the unit to undergo a
"safety-maintenance stand down," during which it will conduct no
further missions as the unit's vehicles undergo safety inspections,
the military said.

On Wednesday, 19 members of the platoon did not parade for a morning
meeting in Tallil, in south-eastern Iraq, to prepare for the fuel
convoy's departure a few hours later, the military statement said.

"An initial report indicated that some of the 19 soldiers refused to
participate in the convoy as directed."

The mission was ultimately carried out by other soldiers from the
343rd, which has at least 120 soldiers.

Convoys in Iraq are frequently subject to ambushes and roadside bombings.

Staff Sgt Christopher Stokes, a 37-year-old chemical engineer from
Charlotte, North Carolina, went to Iraq with the 343rd but had to come
home because of an injury. He said reservists were given inferior
equipment and tensions in the company had been building since they
were deployed in February.

"It wasn't really safe," he said. "The vehicles are not all that up to
par anyway. The armour that they have is home made. It's not really
armour. It's like little steel rails."

A whole unit refusing to go on a mission in a war zone would be a
significant breach of military discipline. The military statement
called the incident "isolated" and called the 343rd an experienced
unit that performed honourable service in nine months in Iraq.

"Preliminary findings indicate that there were several contributing
factors that led to the late convoy incident and alleged refusal to
participate by some soldiers," the military said. "It would be
inappropriate to discuss those factors while the investigation continues."

Separately, the commander of the 300th Area Support Group has ordered
a criminal inquiry to determine if any soldiers committed crimes under
the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and, if so, whether disciplinary
measures are warranted.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3632651




SA Solider in Iraq "Mutiny"
LAST UPDATE: 10/15/2004 8:14:02 PM
Posted By: Jim Forsyth


A San Antonio soldier is a member of an Army Reserve company which is
conducting the first company-wide mutiny of the Iraq war.

PFC Aaron Gordon, who was a student at Southwest High School, is a
member of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, which has been confined to
quarters after refusing to deliver a fuel supply to a location in
Iraq, according to his sister, Amanda Gordon.

She says her brother's company had just delivered fuel to a location
which turned out to be the wrong location. When they returned to their
duty station, they were ordered by their commander to immediately
transport the fuel to another location. When the soldiers complained
that their vehicles needed to be cleaned and repaired before another
shipment could take place, and they would not receive proper support,
they were referred for punishment. Another company carried out the
mission. She said there were also allegations that the fuel was
contaminated.

"I know that a dishonorable discharge is an issue, and I would hate
for that to happen, because he is a really good soldier and he is
fighting for this country," Amanda Gordon told 1200 WOAI news.

"They were told they wouldn't have the helicopter and HUMVEE support
they were used to."

U.S. military officials said in a statement that the commanding
general of the 13th Corps Support Command has ordered an officer to
investigate.

Amanda Gordon said the soldiers, while still confined to barracks,
have been allowed to contact relatives and attorneys.

Fuel convoys are frequent targets of insurgents in Iraq.

"I don't think that the punishment is going to be too harsh," she
said. "I think it'll end up all right, that he'll be all right."

Amanda said her brother joined the Army Reserves after graduating from
high school in Mississippi, and has been in Iraq since January.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=D91A7A49-EA6C-4D98-8144-447\
388F2CFD2

raq: Briton shot dead as 17 US soldiers refuse mission
15-10-2004, 19:17
A British security guard has been shot dead near the northern Iraqi
oil city of Kirkuk, his employer said Friday. The man died of gunshot
wounds suffered during an incident in Taza, south of of Kirkuk, on
October 11, the security company said in a statement. A British source
said he believed the shooting happened at a power plant near Kirkuk.

Meanwhile, the US Army is investigating reports that several members
of a reservist supply unit in Iraq refused to go on a convoy mission,
the military said Friday. Relatives of the soldiers said the troops
considered the mission "too dangerous."

According to press reports, a platoon of 17 troops refused to go on a
fuel supply mission Wednesday because their vehicles were in poor
condition and they did not have a capable armed escort.

A statement from the military's press center in Baghdad called the
incident "isolated," The AP reported. (albawaba.com)

http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=286994&lang=e&dir=news

| Breaking Ranks: An Interview with Mike Hoffman

The co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War knows firsthand why
the United States' mission in Iraq is the wrong war.
Mike Hoffman
Interviewed By Eva Steele-Saccio
October 11, 2004


Corporal Mike Hoffman knows firsthand why the United States' war in
Iraq is the wrong war. Deployed with his Marine Corps unit in February
2003, Hoffman fought in both Tikrit and Baghdad. Though he had his
doubts about the war from the start, he saw going to Iraq as a matter
of professionalism and loyalty. But it soon became clear to him that
the U.S. occupation was doing more harm than good -- to both Iraqis
and Americans. "The hardest thing," he says, "is knowing what we've
done to the kids there."

After returning home with an honorable discharge last August, Hoffman
decided to do something. Teaming up with a small group of fellow
soldiers, Hoffman co-founded the organization Iraq Veterans Against
the War, to push for an end to the Iraq occupation and advocate for
the rights of returning soldiers. Hoffman has spoken at hundreds of
antiwar events, giving voice to the concerns of soldiers who've
returned from Iraq, and those who are still there and have doubts
about the war but are nervous about speaking out.

Hoffman recently spoke to MotherJones.com by phone from his home in
Pennsylvania.

MotherJones.com: Why did you form IVAW? What do you hope to achieve?

MikeHoffman: When I first came home and started speaking out last
November, I think the only ones speaking at that point were myself,
Steven Funk, who was protesting against the war before it had started,
and Jimmy Massey. People started asking me, "Where are the rest of
them? You can't be the only one who feels this way about the war." I
said just wait, there is going to be more of them coming. It's just
that I came home first. So just by doing what I was doing, I started
running into more and more people who felt the same way. I met most of
the co-founders either through Veterans for Peace, through Military
Families Speak Out or meeting up with them at protests.

MJ.com: Why did you decide to found it?

MH: We had been talking for a while. And with Veterans for Peace
National Convention coming up in July we all realized, Hey, we're all
going to be here together. The momentum behind this is really building
up. We're finding more and more people like us every single day. Now
is the time for us to get together and formally announce that we've
created this group. And that's exactly what happened at the Veterans
for Peace convention in Boston.

MJ.com: What are you guys doing now to build political pressure at home?

MH: Basically, we're just trying to get our message out however we
can. We're doing a lot of press interviews, we're getting a lot of
offers to speak at college campuses and community gatherings, which we
take up every chance we get. Also speaking at rallies and marches,
basically just making our voice heard as loudly and clearly as possible.

MJ.com: Do you think vets can bring a degree of credibility to the
anti-war movement that others can't?

MH: Most definitely. I mean when somebody else comes out and speaks,
the average American hears him and goes, oh he's just some
college-educated tree-hugger that doesn't really know what's going on
in the world. But when the average American hears a veteran—be it from
this conflict, Vietnam, WWII, Korea, whatever, somebody who has seen
combat and knows what it means—people listen, more than they do to
anyone else, because this is somebody who has been on the ground,
knows what the realities are, knows what these things mean.

MJ.com: Did you oppose the war in Iraq from the start?

MH: I did oppose the war from the get-go, but it changed after going
through Iraq. Before I went there, my reasons for being against the
war were I guess more academic. I'd been reading the news articles. I
didn't believe in the claims of WMDs -- those aren't just something
you hide under someone's bed. If Saddam had them, we would have some
kind of tangible evidence. The idea that Saddam had ties to al Qaeda
was laughable to anyone who had really taken any time to understand
the Middle East.

After going to Iraq and seeing what he did there, the devastation that
came upon the people of Iraq, the things that happened to the people
who fought there. Luckily my unit itself, everyone came home, but I
hear stories from my friends of people dying in their arms, of fearing
for their lives and just watching their friends in front of them. This
is something no one should ever go through, especially not for a lie.

MJ.com: So do you oppose war on principle?

MH: No, I'm not a pacifist. I do believe that, unfortunately, war is
necessary. I don't believe there is such thing as a just or unjust
war; there are avoidable and unavoidable wars. Sometimes you have no
choice but to go to war. And WWII, when we got involved in it, that
was an unavoidable war. It could have been avoided in earlier times,
but it became unavoidable. That doesn't mean that the war was right,
that doesn't mean that we fought the war in a just manner. There were
a lot of things on both ends that were horrible: the dropping of the
atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fire-bombing of Dresden.
Things like that weren't justified, but they happen in war. War is
horrible no matter what. There's going to be atrocities, there's going
to be horrible things that happen in war. That's why when we go to war
we have to make sure that we've done everything to avoid that war.

MJ.com: Given that you disagreed with the war, how did you feel about
going to fight in Iraq?

MH: I disagreed with the war but I went anyway, not because I agreed
with the war but because my friends were going. Being in the military,
I was going over with people I've known for four years. These were
people that were basically family to me and I couldn't keep a clear
conscience by letting them go over and not go with them. I had to be
there to protect them just like they were going to protect me.

MJ.com: What kept you going once you were there?

MH: It's really the idea of getting your friends home alive, and
that's just it -- getting your friends home alive. [I] and my other
friends who felt the same way about the war, we basically said to
ourselves, Listen, we are going to do whatever it takes to get home in
one piece and we'll deal with the consequences of that later. That was
the whole idea -- just get home, get the mission done as quickly as
possible -- just get to Baghdad -- and then we'd go home.

MJ.com: Do you advocate bringing the troops home now?

MH: Yes, myself and IVAW—our primary goal is bring the troops home
now. If you look at what's going on over there, it's becoming clearer
and clearer every day as reports come back from the troops who are
serving there and people higher up of what's going on there, that the
troops are the cause of the problem, they aren't fixing anything. The
Iraqis view us as occupiers, as they should—we are occupying their
country. And as long as they feel that way, nothing is going to get
accomplished.

MJ.com: If the U.S. were to pull out, what then?

MH: After the troops pull out, we can't completely abandon Iraq. We
still owe a lot to the people of Iraq. The years of sanctions, two
wars against the people of Iraq. We have to help them rebuild. But the
military is not the people to do it. We have to give them financial
aid, we have to give them material aid and whatever else they want and
need. It's not what we want to give them, it's what they want. We have
to remember that we are there to aid them, not occupy them. That's a
very important thing that people tend to forget. We shouldn't be
occupying, we should be aiding them and that means that we have to
listen to them and hear what their needs are. There's obviously people
in Iraq who want to move in the right direction. We've got to give
them that chance to be heard.

MJ.com: Did you support the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan?

MH: You see, Afghanistan is a lot more complicated and a lot different
than Iraq. I think at first we were justified by going in there. This
is where Osama bin Laden, his network was based, where they were
operating out of. So going in there was something we needed to do. But
where we screwed up is that we didn't follow through, we didn't
conduct things correctly. This is where I go back to what we were
talking about—an avoidable and unavoidable war. This, like any war,
was avoidable years ago. You look at the fact that the U.S. has
supported Osama Bin Laden in the past during the Russian invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, things like that. This has been a long time
coming. We could have stopped this years ago. But we didn't take those
actions, so it became unavoidable.

What we haven't done is follow through. We were hailing the sudden
rise of women's rights in Afghanistan, things like that. Well, if you
look at Afghanistan now, all those positions that were held by women
have been vacated, people are afraid to take over the office of
women's rights in Afghanistan because of numerous death threats and
assassinations against those people. The warlords are starting to take
back over. I've seen some independent news articles talking about how
the opium trade in Iraq is going through the roof and U.S. servicemen
are starting to get involved, just like what was happening in Vietnam.
So you know, you're starting to see this cycle, basically because
we've shifted all those resources and personnel away from Afghanistan
where they were doing some good, over to Iraq where they shouldn't be
in the first place.

MJ.com: What do you think is the proper role of the U.S. military in
the "War on Terror"?

MH: I think the U.S. military needs to be pulled back more. I think
what we're doing with them is the wrong way to use them. We need to
use them when there is no other choice. I like what Kerry said in some
respects on this—we need a smaller, faster, tighter-controlled
military. We need to be able to do quick strikes. And also, if we find
Osama bin Laden, go get him. Use small strike forces, maybe just a
battalion for something like that. We don't need a massive invasion
force just to grab him, as long as we have permission from the
country. What we need to do is just like what we need to do in Iraq --
we need to attack the very basis of terrorism, which, if you look at
it, is global poverty, it's the globalization of the world's economy,
things like that, the stripping of other nations' resources by
American and British companies, that is the real cause of terrorism.
We have to address those things. That's how we have to win the war on
terrorism.

MJ.com: What's your sense of the morale among the troops in Iraq?

MH: It's bad and it's getting worse every single day. Basically, every
single American knows someone who has been killed by an Iraqi and
every Iraqi knows someone who has killed by an American. You've got
guys over there who are ill equipped and ill trained. Just yesterday a
battery from the battalion I served with in the Marines was sent out
to Iraq. This is an artillery battery, they are now acting as
provisional rifle companies—this is not what they're trained for, but
yet they're being sent to Iraq to do it. And this is happening time
and time again, because we are just over-extended in Iraq,
over-extended, under-manned, under-equipped, under-trained. And it's
wearing on the guys, long deployments, low pay, they are trying to cut
benefits, they're trying to cut the pay over there. This is ruining
the morale for the guys.

MJ.com: Do you worry that your activities in the IVAW might undermine
the morale of the troops in Iraq?

MH: No, not at all. Because if you talk to the majority of guys there,
they just want to go the hell home. They don't want to be there
anymore. They don't see a point to them being there. That's the real
kicker. They don't understand why they are still there, they don't see
themselves doing any good. They know they're not wanted by the people
of Iraq, so why should they stay?

MJ.com: Are there any soldiers who feel differently or do you think
that's pretty much across the board?

MH: It's the majority of the people that want to leave. There are
still some people who think we're doing the right thing by staying
there, but the majority just want to go home.

MJ.com: Does that translate to anti-Bush sentiment?

MH: Definitely. Just from what I've been reading, a lot of guys are
afraid to speak out in the military, but they will most definitely
cast a ballot. And I think you'll see a lot of the military vote going
to Kerry. Not just because of Iraq but because of things like cuts to
the VA and cuts to quality of living programs in the military, things
like that.

MJ.com: Part of the IVAW's mission statement is advocating for better
benefits for veterans returning from Iraq. What does the situation for
them look like right now?

MH: It's bad. They've been closing VA hospitals for years now, cutting
VA benefits. The GI bill, when it was originally started years ago
after WWII, was a great program. It basically paid completely for
someone's schooling. It barely covers anything nowadays. It will cover
somebody going to a community college, but that's it. If someone wants
to go to a real four-year college, that is not nearly enough. The VA
has been just been absolutely gutted. Right now they are closing the
Manhattan VA hospital, which is going to be a huge blow to that area.
They also closed the hospital in Pittsburgh, which means you are
putting a lot of burden on these guys to travel to different places.
Walter Reed Hospital, where they are treating most of the amputees
from Iraq, was so overfilled that they didn't even have enough beds
for people and they're putting them up in hotels nearby. This is
overburden, it's a growing example of how they've been continuingly
cutting benefits for the military veterans.

MJ.com: And does it look that same way for people coming home from Iraq?

MH: It's looking worse and worse by the day.

MJ.com: We were talking earlier about dissent in the military. How
high up do you think it goes?

MH: It goes very high up. I just got an email from a senior NCO,
someone who has been in the military for 20 years, who outlined and
hit the same points that I do on saying why we should leave Iraq. This
is someone who has been in for 20 years. There's people who are
retired generals who are speaking out against the occupation of Iraq.

MJ.com: And do you think it goes as high up in military serving in Iraq?

MH: I think it might. I can't say for sure because the higher up
someone gets in the military, the more they have to lose by speaking
out, so they definitely think twice.

MJ.com: What advice would you give Kerry on Iraq if he were elected?

MH: The advice I would give to him is basically just to remember his
roots. Go back to what he said after the Vietnam war and follow along
with the feelings he had back then. I think if he was still holding a
lot of the values that he held back then, we would be in a much better
place.

MJ.com: So do you think that Kerry has strayed from those values?

MH: I think he has. I've heard a lot of people say that privately he
speaks a lot more harshly on Iraq and what he wants to do there. But I
haven't heard it publicly and I think if he says things like that he
would be doing better in the polls and I would have a much better time
getting behind his campaign.

MJ.com: What did you think of Kerry's Sept. 20 speechat NYU, laying
out his plan for Iraq?

MH: That was probably the best speech I've heard him give the entire
campaign. He's not there yet, but he's getting very close to what I
want to hear. That was a definite step in the right direction for him.

MJ.com: And so you agreed with the steps he was advocating?

MH: Not completely, but he's definitely getting very close. Basically,
he's still calling for some kind of military force there. I think that
that's what we need to get away from. I think that's what's causing a
lot of the problems. He's stepping in the right direction when he says
that we need to get more UN aid agencies in there, more U.N.
assistance for conducting elections and things like that. But I think
he's calling for internationalizing the military force and I think we
need to internationalize the aid and withdraw the military force.

MJ.com: Are you currently on call?

MH: Right now I'm on "inactive reserve" or "individual ready reserve,"
which means I don't have to go out and do anything active, but if they
call me up, I would technically have to go.

MJ.com: And would you right now?

MH: I don't like saying anything just because there are some people
who have been prosecuted for making statements about that. If you
remember Abdul Henderson, who was in the film "Fahrenheit 9/11,"
statements he made—the military was considering pressing charges
against him for that.

MJ.com: Did you vote for Bush in 2000?

MH: No I didn't, actually I voted for Ralph Nader.

MJ.com: Are you considering voting for Nader again?

MH: I don't think so. I hate to say it, but it's just too
important—especially since I'm in a battleground state. I'm in
Pennsylvania. But it's just too important to get rid of Bush.

MJ.com: It sounds like you are going for Kerry then?

MH: Yeah.

http://motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/10/09_400.html


  Warriors Against War
http://motherjones.com/news/featurex/2004/10/10_400.html

well in many places in Amerika the elections have begun for the "bid"
for power of the country.  And as predicted by such people as Jimmy
Carter, the people at the website www.blackboxvoting.org and many
other that the 2004 elections will end up messed up like the 2000
elections (actually many believe, like myself, even worse and far more
wide spread).  Florida has already had computer glitches in its
electorial system.  As those in Oregon or Her neighboring states know
there is a issue of registration fraud where people newly registered
as "Democrats" were discarded by a private group claiming to be
neutral.  The Nader struggle (whether you favour him or not) obviously
limits choice for elections where its the stories of his funding
secretly comming from republicans or the outright efforts of democrats
to invalidate his run.  Personally I believe we need to remove power
from a single office and should be looking at something like a
"presidential councel" or the system that is currently being explored
in the European Union with a councel of three presidents that rotate
in and out of office in a matter of months.  For a people (the
Americans) who pride themselves on their dislike of kings, emperors
and nobility the Amerikans love to put in power their equivalent of
nobility (the Bushes, the Kennedies, Rockerfellers or the Coors) into
high offices.  The Amerikans love to solidify their power into a
single office of power.


We must at all cost remember NEVER EVER re-establish elitism and
centralized power again!  We must delve into what true democracy is!
This is why I would like people to think about this:

Democracy is not elections! Democracy is the empowerment of the
people (all people) and a continuing dialogue between the people and
institutions that govern the people and their determination to have
control over their individual lives. Elections, voting, ballots,
education and forums are tools to allow a dynamic dialogue between the
people and those institutions. But elections by themselves are not
democracy. Nor does the democratic dialogue end at the ballot box
until the next elections. Democracy is dynamic, continous and
inclusive not exclusive of all.



anyway here is some articles about the electorial farce that is about
to unfold:



Fearing a rerun of 2000 debacle

IF VOTE COMES DOWN TO FLORIDA AGAIN, EXPECT TROUBLE
By Rebecca Wakefield


Miami-Dade County is home to roughly 2.5 million people, about half of
whom were not born in the United States. There are about a million
registered voters here, all hopped up on café Cubano and political
intrigue. Elections for us are a heady, nonsensical mix of passions --
as much about the old homeland as neighborhood potholes.

We are a community of divisions, balkanized by differences in
language, national origin, skin color, economic opportunity and
unhealed wounds. The politics of all this can get ridiculous.
Conspiracy theories abound. We do not trust each other. And never more
so than now.

After the debacle of the 2000 elections, in Miami and other areas of
the state, rage boiled out of black neighborhoods that saw the return
of Dixie in their perceived disenfranchisement. The U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights found that more than half the votes rejected by election
supervisors had been cast by blacks in communities with faulty polling
machines and poor voter education. Even the more apathetic masses
around the state felt the prick of anger at becoming a national punch
line forever linked with ``hanging chad.''

No quick fixes

This year lawsuits alleging misdeeds already are flying. Last week,
for instance, voting-rights groups and unions sued to halt the
disqualification of thousands of incomplete voter-registration forms.

Last time around -- in 2000 -- politicians blamed everything on
antiquated voting methods and passed laws requiring counties to buy
the magic beans that would fix it all: electronic voting machines that
would flawlessly and unambiguously record every vote. A handful of
companies sold counties expensive voting systems, but election
officials then felt obliged by fear or ignorance to turn over their
bureaucratic souls to the machines. Miami-Dade spent about $24 million
for the equipment, and then many millions more getting it to work
properly -- without having adequately prepared the gummy-fingered
electorate or poll workers who must use it.

The first large-scale test of touch-screen voting in Miami-Dade was
the not surprisingly messed-up 2002 gubernatorial primary, in which
Janet Reno narrowly lost to a lawyer from Tampa. Polls opened late,
voting machines malfunctioned, hundreds of voters were turned away and
more than 1,500 votes disappeared. To be fair to the widget-makers, a
good percentage of the problems were what you'd call human error,
caused by poor training and unfamiliarity with the new machines.

This time around, it's not so much the machines that skeptics worry
about. It's the people -- those running local elections and those
making the laws that rule the process. Election workers have a little
more training, but state officials have endlessly proved they care
less about accurate elections than they do about smooth ones. Smooth,
as in trouble-free, no questions asked.

To wit, earlier this year, the legislature removed a requirement that
absentee ballots be signed by a witness, ostensibly to prevent ballots
from being thrown out on a technicality. But the real effect will be
to streamline the whole business of voter fraud. People here remember
that in 1997 it was irregularities with witness signatures in the
Miami mayor's race that led to an investigation that overturned the
election when it was discovered that non-residents and even dead
people had voted absentee. That kind of fraud now will be harder to
detect.

Yet, even as Gov. Jeb Bush denounced as partisan the concerns of
voting-rights groups such as the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition
regarding the reliability of the machines and election procedures, the
plausible-deniability wing of the state Republican Party (among other
groups, including some Democratic ones) was sending mailers
encouraging people with machine phobia to vote absentee.

E-vote paper trail

This spring, state elections officials attempted to get a law passed
banning manual recounts on touch-screen voting machines, which
bolstered suspicions about the machines' reliability. When that
failed, thanks to the vigilance of activists, Secretary of State
Glenda Hood issued a state rule to the same effect, arguing that the
machines don't need a paper trail. A judge threw out the rule in
August, but Hood could still issue an emergency rule.

Then there is the state's purge list of felons who can't vote in
Florida, which Hood was forced to abandon after it was revealed by the
media that the list included far too many blacks, while vastly
undercounting the numbers of Latino felons. That Florida law
enforcement officers may have intentionally tried to intimidate
elderly black voters by showing up unannounced at their homes in
Orlando during an investigation of voting fraud last spring is adding
to the level of paranoia and mistrust that surrounds voting in Florida.

It doesn't boost confidence to know that most of the reforms in place
to ensure that late-night TV personalities Jay Leno and David
Letterman have nothing further to say about how we conduct elections
have been forced on the elections officials by relentless activists
and media scrutiny. The two major political parties have focused far
more on the old tropes of politicking than on the nitty-gritty of
ensuring accurate elections. The Republican strategy is, oddly, to
advocate blind trust in government, while the Democrats try to
leverage the legitimate fears of voters into increased turnout of the
base, or at least the groundwork for a lawsuit if they lose.

Election officials

The usual political jockeying aside, much of the fate of Florida's
electoral votes actually perches on the narrow shoulders of paper
shufflers and technicians in the 67 county elections departments
around the state.

These poor saps aren't, by and large, trying to steal any election,
but they do make mistakes -- accidentally unplugging vital computers,
misplacing critical files or stamping the wrong date on an
application. It should be the desire of the political parties and
state officials to demand the highest level of confidence in our
elections, but they don't.

It's a lot easier to holler and pontificate if the system doesn't work
for you than it is to ensure that the system works for all -- even the
people you oppose.

REBECCA WAKEFIELD is a staff writer for Miami New Times, a weekly
newspaper. This article first appeared in Newsday.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/9942419.htm?1c
________


ABC News
Few Glitches Reported in Early Fla. Voting
Early Voting Opens in Florida, Other States With Relatively Few
Problems Reported

The Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Oct. 18, 2004 — Voters began casting ballots
Monday in the state synonymous with the election fiasco of 2000, but
only a few glitches were reported on a day that marked the start of
early voting in several states.

Thirty-two states allow residents to vote at the polls before Election
Day, and Texas, Colorado and Arkansas also began the process Monday
along with Florida. Several other battleground states have already
begun early voting, including Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and New Mexico.
The problems in Florida included a brief computer system crash in one
county and voter complaints of incomplete paper ballots. But there
were no early reports of problems with the ATM-like touch-screen
voting machines introduced since the troubled 2000 election.
Florida's early voting was touted partly as a way to avoid long lines
on Nov. 2, but it turned out to be so popular that Lucien Gennaro, a
police aide in Coral Springs, waited for an hour and finally had to
leave for work.

"A lot of people who were waiting just left. I'll try again tomorrow,"
he said. "It was a little frustrating after what happened in 2000."
Critics say the extended voting period increases opportunities for
fraud. And some groups urged voters to ask for paper absentee ballots
because of concerns about the touch-screen machines and the
possibility of recounts. Voters can choose either method through Nov. 1.
State Rep. Shelley Vana said the absentee ballot she requested at a
Palm Beach County site was missing one of its two pages, including
proposed state constitutional amendments. She said election workers
were indifferent when she pointed out the oversight.
"This is not a good start. If there are incomplete ballots out there,
I can't imagine I would be the only one getting it," she said.
Palm Beach County elections supervisor Theresa LePore did not
immediately return calls seeking comment.
In Florida's Orange County, the computer system that lists eligible
voters went down for about 10 minutes shortly after voting began, said
Margaret Dunn, the senior deputy elections supervisor. She speculated
a faulty Internet connection may have been to blame.
Several of Broward County's 14 polling places had trouble linking
their computers to a supervisor's office to confirm voter eligibility,
said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman at the Secretary of State Glenda Hood's
office. Workers used paper lists and called the supervisor's office to
verify eligibility, Nash said.
The touch-screen voting machines got a favorable review from Robin
Punches, who used one of them for the first time in Palm Beach County.
"It tells you exactly what to do. It's idiot proof," she said.
During early voting in Texas, President Bush got at least two votes in
Houston from his parents.
"We love voting for our son," former first lady Barbara Bush said
after casting her electronic ballot at a community center.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=176083

_______

Early Voting for President Begins with 'Hiccups'
Mon Oct 18, 2004 03:42 PM ET

Early Voting for President Begins with 'Hiccups'
Government Ignored Flu Warnings, Democrats Say
Bush, Kerry Trade Sharp Attacks on Terror, Iraq
MORE

By Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) - Early voting for the U.S. presidential election
began in Florida on Monday as activists urged people to opt for early
ballots to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election fiasco, but computer
problems and long lines soon emerged.

With memories still fresh of 2000, when the race in the key
battleground state was so close it triggered weeks of recounts and
lawsuits, black and elderly voters in particular lined up to cast
ballots two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

"It was embarrassing last time. Florida looked like a third world
country," said Marie Bond, adding she was voting early "because I want
my vote to count."

"I don't want the same like the last election," echoed Haitian
American Jean-Jacques Ardoun as he waited in a line of several hundred
that snaked from inside the Miami-Dade government center outside.
"Last time they took the votes and threw them in the garbage."

Florida decided the 2000 election for President Bush after the U.S.
Supreme Court halted the recounts, and both Bush and his Democratic
challenger, Sen. John Kerry, have campaigned vigorously in the state.

As the voting began Kerry was in West Palm Beach -- at the center of
the 2000 debacle because many voters were confused by the county's
ballot design. Bush, who won Florida by 537 votes in 2000, was due in
Boca Raton later on Monday.

New technology, such as ATM-style touch-screen voting machines, has
replaced the punch card ballots that caused so much chaos in the last
election.

Nevertheless, a plethora of independent poll watching groups, the
Democrats and Bush's Republicans are urging voters to take advantage
of early voting to avoid problems.

More than two dozen states offer "no excuse" early voting by either
mail or in person, meaning voters do not have to give a reason. Some
states, such as Nevada, Iowa and West Virginia, have already begun.
Texas, Arkansas and Colorado also started on Monday.

In Florida, the process was far from seamless.

In Broward County, north of Miami, supervisor of elections Brenda
Snipes said a computer connection went down, preventing nine ballot
stations from accessing a database to find out which one of the
county's 152 different ballot styles each voter should have.

"It's a hiccup, it's a bit more than a hiccup," Snipes told the
Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

In Orlando, home to the Disney World theme parks, people were kept
waiting for more than two hours by a combination of long lines and
computer malfunctions that prevented poll workers from verifying the
names and addresses of voters.

In Miami-Dade, poll workers appeared overwhelmed by the hundreds
brought to the government center by a rally of trade unions, voter
activists and Democrats, and the line to cast an early ballot moved
achingly slowly.

"This is unusual," said election official Javier Gonzalez, pointing to
the long line.

Patience quickly began to run thin.

"They've got four people to register hundreds," said John Simon, a
Republican turned Democrat who wanted to pick up an absentee ballot
but decided after waiting for two hours that he might as well cast an
early vote.

Voting rights activists and Democrats have been highly critical of the
state's elections division, run by Glenda Hood, a Republican appointed
by the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. A string of
lawsuits on issues such as the lack of a paper trail for touch-screen
systems are before the courts.

But Republicans also urged people to vote early to avoid long lines
amid an anticipated heavy turnout.

"You'll feel better on November 2nd knowing your vote was already
cast," Bush's campaign said in an e-mail to supporters.

(Additional reporting by Frances Kerry in Miami and Broward Liston in
Orlando)


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6532888
________

Keep Voter Registration Clean
Get-out-the-vote drives by both Democrats and Republicans have
resulted in record voter registration numbers this year. Michigan's
registrar, for instance, expects some 96 percent of the state's
eligible voters to be registered in time to vote on Nov. 2.


In such a hotly contested presidential contest, accusations of all
sorts are flying back and forth between the campaigns as they go about
signing up new voters. Some of them are particularly troubling.

For months, Republicans have claimed Democratic-leaning
special-interest groups have been handing in fraudulent or duplicate
registrations.

In Florida, multiple lawsuits have been filed by Democrats charging
election supervisors with voter disenfranchisement. Labor unions and
voting-rights groups have sued to stop some 10,000 incomplete
registration forms from being disqualified.

Democrats also are complaining about reports in Nevada and Oregon that
detail charges by former employees of an Arizona firm hired by the
Republican National Committee to register voters in those states. The
ex-employees allege the company actually threw out Democratic voter
registration forms. Last week, the Oregon state attorney general began
a criminal investigation into the claim.

Political parties often pay outside firms to register voters, and
those firms often don't identify themselves as working for a political
party. Clearly, they should state their party affiliation. Without
greater transparency in the registration process, American faith in
the political system is likely to erode further.

And though it seems obvious, everyone from the election day volunteer
up to the secretaries of state must not let their politics interfere
with obtaining the most accurate vote possible. Otherwise, the courts
will probably make that decision for them.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p08s02-comv.html
_________

New voters: confirm your registration



By Marshall Loeb, CBS.MarketWatch.com


NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Your right to vote is among your greatest assets -
one you should make sure hasn't been stolen by voter registration scams.

Several states, including Oregon and Nevada, are investigating charges
that voter registration application forms were shredded by
registration drive organizers.

The Federal Trade Commission also warns that telephone scam artists
have been posing as volunteers making calls asking for personal
information and even financial information to confirm that the voter
is properly registered. In reality, the callers use that information
to open new financial accounts and make charges in your name.

The U.S. Elections Assistance Commission recommends that if you have
recently registered to vote, you should contact your local board of
elections to confirm that your name is on the registration list.

If it isn't, ask a representative at the board of elections what
options are open to you. You may be able to re-register if your state
deadline has not already passed, or vote under a provisional ballot.
Provisional ballots are given to voters whose names do not appear on
registration lists, or who cannot provide identification. The ballot
is not counted until the voter's registration has been verified -
sometimes days after an election.

To report voter registration fraud or a violation of your voter
rights, contact your state election officials.

If someone has made an unsolicited phone call to you asking for your
personal or financial information for voter registration, report the
incident to the FTC. Call (877) 382-4357.

http://www.nydailynews.com/business/marketwatch/story/243380p-208635c.html

__________


VOTER FRAUD
Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy


October 18, 2004



CBN.com – John Fund is a member of the editorial board of the Wall
Street Journal, where he previously served as deputy editorial
features editor. His articles have appeared in such publications as
Esquire, Reader's Digest, The New Republic and National Review. Gordon
Robertson talked with Fund recently about the upcoming presidential
election, the growing threat of voter fraud and ways to prevent it.


GORDON ROBERTSON: With us now to discuss voter fraud is John Fund of
opinionjournal.com. He is the author of a new book "Stealing
Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens our Democracy." John, welcome
back to The 700 Club.

JOHN FUND: Thank you.

ROBERTSON: I was reading your book last night, and it's a real
page-turner. I had a sense I was reading tomorrow's headlines. Are we
really going to see this kind of problem, almost a nightmare of voter
problems, in 2004?

FUND: If you look at the conditions that we had in Florida that turned
Election Day into election month in 2000, if you compare those
conditions to a forest, the grass and trees are just as dry today as
they were in 2000, except now everyone has matches in the form of
lawyers. John Kerry has 10,000 volunteer lawyers monitoring
conditions, preparing lawsuits; George Bush has about 4,000.

ROBERTSON: It looks like the Democrats are already gearing up to
launch challenges. I'll quote from their manual. They're saying, "If
no signs of voter intimidation have emerged yet, launch a preemptive
strike." What do they mean by that?

FUND: Passions are running very high, and both sides are trying to pin
the tail on each other. What I think the Democrats are up to is, they
believe sincerely that Florida was stolen from them in 2000. John
Kerry runs around saying that a million African-Americans had their
votes stolen in 2000, without any real evidence. What now seems to
happen is, if they don't have the evidence that the Republicans are
trying to steal the election, even though they sincerely believe the
Republicans will try, I guess they are just going to make it up.

ROBERTSON: I kind of question the sincere belief here. You point out
in your book that if the recount had happened as the Florida Supreme
Court wanted, George Bush would have won. So I don't really believe
them when they say these votes were stolen -- the election was stolen
-- do you?

FUND: Passions can sometimes overtake reason. I think the Democrats I
have spoken with and interviewed for this book really believe that
Florida was stolen. I don't think so. I think the recount confirmed
what you just said. As a result they are so angry, I think there might
be temptation. This is what my book addresses, to right that
imbalance, to put their thumb on the scale of election justice system,
or even their fist, and that's what I am worried about. We have a real
problem with fraud in this country because we have an honor system.
Our system is so sloppy that eight of the nineteen hijackers of 9-11
were registered to vote in either Virginia or Florida. That is an open
engraved invitation to people to commit fraud if they want to.

ROBERTSON: How do they get registration? Is it that there is no proof
of citizenship required anymore to register to vote?

FUND: There are very few proofs to either register or vote. When you
get a driver's license, you automatically get signed up to vote. A
photo ID, which would cut down on some of this fraud, in almost 75
percent of the states there is no photo ID required; in California it
is against the law to ask people for photo ID. I find that just
bizarre, because we ask for photo ID when we cash a check, board an
airplane and rent a video at Blockbuster, but not for the sacred act
of voting.

ROBERTSON: Your book goes into some real specifics. Buying votes,
voter fraud, rigging elections, and you point out three particular
problem areas. One are the reservations in South Dakota. Looks like
that race is going to be red-hot this year. The problems -- it sounds
like St. Louis is a third-world country -- the way they run their
elections; and then of all places, Palm Beach, Florida, where the
President didn't receive as many votes as the Republican senatorial
candidate in the same year. How are we going to deal with these kinds
of issues?

FUND: I think several things. We have to have a lot of reform agenda
items after this election. It will reveal all of the things we didn't
do after Florida that we should have done. But there are some things
we can do before this election. The big problem in Florida 2000 was,
people trying to change the rules after the election, to twist the
rule interpretation to favor them. We should sit down and have a
public discussion, the media should talk about how are we going to
count the provisional ballots this year. These are ballets cast by
people whose names are not on the voter registration rolls. Let's find
out what the rules are now, let's agree and establish what they are
now, what the interpretations are, the precedence. Let's do it now so
we don't have people trying to change the rules or the interpretation
after the election, and have the lawyers take over the election away
from the voters.

ROBERTSON: In sort of a post-election analysis -- and I am assuming we
are going to see some similar problems in 2004 as we saw in 2000 -- if
we do try to fix the system, do you see the `race' card being played,
that somehow or other Republicans are trying to disenfranchise
minority voters?

FUND: Yes. There are incidents, and I mentioned in my book that some
years ago armed guards were posted in polling places. That is
completely wrong. But I believe one of the reasons we have voter fraud
to the extent we do now is, as your story before this interview
indicated, prosecutions are rare. Prosecutors hate voter fraud cases.
Half of the partisans will be mad at them, no matter who they go
after. And people are always saying you are trying to scare voters
away. I think it is important to preserve the civil right to vote. But
it is an equal civil right not to have anyone's vote in your audience
cancelled out or voided because someone is voting twice, or somebody
is voting who shouldn't be voting, or someone is voting who doesn't
exist.

ROBERTSON: Well, John, thank you very much for your book and for being
with us. Again, the book is "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud
Threatens Our Democracy." You need to get it.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/041018a.asp

____________


Colorado combats voter fraud


By Valerie Richardson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

DENVER — Colorado officials yesterday brainstormed about how to ensure
a fair, clean election in the wake of widespread accusations of
voter-registration fraud.
     "There is some evidence of fraud in these voter-registration
drives," Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, said after a meeting
with the state's top elections clerks and district attorneys. "What
this meeting is about is trying to make sure there's no fraud on
Election Day."
     With just two weeks before the Nov. 2 election, the state has been
rocked by evidence that some voter-registration drives have submitted
applications with forged signatures. In other cases, would-be voters
have applied to vote as many as 40 times.
      At the same time, some registration drives have collected
applications and then failed to submit them by the Oct. 4 deadline,
prompting Secretary of State Donetta Davidson to announce the use of
provisional ballots last week.
     At yesterday's meeting with county clerks and district attorneys,
Mrs. Davidson announced procedures for accepting provisional ballots,
which are issued to people who say they have registered but whose
names fail to appear on the voter roll.
     Such ballots would be marked "VRD," for "Voter Registration
Drive." The would-be voter would have to produce identification and
tell when and where they registered. The ballot later would be checked
against the state's voter databases.
     Critics have warned that allowing provisional ballots could invite
attempts at multiple voting and other fraud, but state elections
officials insisted that the state has long allowed emergency
registrations on Election Day.
     "These vehicles have always been here, so we're not doing
something totally different," said state elections official Drew Durham.
     Mrs. Davidson also sought to assuage fears of massive fraud by
pointing out that it was county clerks who had flagged the most
egregious cases appearing in recent press accounts.
     "When people are told there are hundreds of these cases, they
don't realize that they were all caught by the clerk and recorder and
never made it through the system," Mrs. Davidson said.
     Most clerks and lawyers at the meeting chalked up the fraud to
overzealous registration workers trying to earn some extra cash.
Several of the state's independent voter-registration groups paid
their workers $2 per application and set goals of 10 applications per
hour.
     Carole Snyder, the Adams County clerk and recorder, said she
received 42 applications for the same would-be voter. Her office
flagged the excess applications, each of which contained the same
information, and pared it down to one.
     "Those are not really what I call fraudulent, but are really just
a pain in the neck," Mrs. Snyder said.
     Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Linda Salas said some people
register repeatedly not with the intent to vote more than once, but
rather as Election Day insurance.
     "A lot of times, people are registering several times because,
'Oh, I can't remember if I registered,' or 'Maybe I should do it
again, just to be sure,' " Mrs. Salas said.
     The clerks are referring cases that appear to be blatant fraud,
such as forged signatures, to the county attorneys. Bill Ritter, the
Denver district attorney, said his office received 69 such cases from
the county clerk last week.
     But he said he saw no pattern of a conspiracy to commit election
fraud.
     "We are not seeing some scam where people are trying to corrupt
the process," Mr. Ritter said. "We're seeing people who are motivated
by greed or laziness."

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041018-124856-1311r.htm

__________


SECRETARY OF STATE
Election near, Hood fighting criticism

In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, Florida
Secretary of State Glenda Hood has taken Katherine Harris' place as
the figurehead -- and lightning rod -- for the state's elections process.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD And GARY FINEOUT
ebolstad@...


Glenda Hood is too practiced in politics and too polished in public
relations to criticize the woman who ran Florida's elections before her.

Even if she doesn't say it, Hood makes it clear: She is not another
Katherine Harris, the polarizing former secretary of state with a
starring role in the infamous 2000 recount.

''It's very frustrating sometimes when people continue to live in the
past,'' Hood said last week, as she attended voting equipment tests in
Pasco County, something she pointed out Harris never did.

But as Florida's secretary of state, and as a Republican woman with
close ties to the governor, Hood will be closely watched in the next
two weeks before the presidential election.

And Hood will be compared to Harris.

Democrats and civil rights activists easily rattle off what they say
is a pattern of partisanship from Hood. At every turn, Hood has acted
to keep Florida voters from voting, said Scott Maddox, chairman of the
state Democratic Party.

The most egregious, Maddox said, was Hood's effort to force county
election officials to strike felons from the state's voter rolls,
using a list that was found to be flawed.

NADER ON BALLOT

Hood also worked to keep Ralph Nader on the ballot in Florida, Maddox
said, thwarting Democratic efforts to keep the third-party
presidential candidate from siphoning away votes for John Kerry.

Hood defends her actions, saying much of the criticism aimed at her is
residual partisan anger from the 2000 election, which she did not
oversee. She also points out that she scrapped the felon list and
ordered an audit to explain why it was so flawed.

She is especially critical of attacks on the state's touch-screen
voting machines, pointing to hundreds of successful elections since
2002 using the equipment.

''Where were these questions, where were these challenges, where were
these issues a year ago?'' Hood asked. ``I think there's a lot of
confusion that is intentionally being created by people at the 11th
hour to try to erode voter confidence in this state.''

Unlike Harris, who was elected independently statewide, Hood is
appointed by the governor. The job, once a statewide elected Cabinet
slot, became an appointed position at the beginning of 2003, when Hood
took office.

`MARCHING ORDERS'

''I feel badly for Glenda Hood,'' said Maddox, who became acquainted
with her when he was mayor of Tallahassee and she was the Orlando
mayor. ``I never knew her to be an overtly partisan person. But it's
clear to me that Jeb Bush is giving Glenda Hood her marching orders,
and she is carrying them out.''

The criticism has extended to the courtroom. In the weeks leading up
to the elections, the secretary of state has been served with seven
voting-related lawsuits. The highest-profile of the bunch -- one that
seeks a paper trail for electronic voting machines -- goes to trial
today in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Nationally, Hood has taken a worse beating. Within the past several
weeks, editorials in The New York Times accused her of ''blatant vote
suppression,'' and former President Jimmy Carter worried in The
Washington Post that Hood's role in Florida was damaging American
efforts to set ``a global example of pure democracy.''

CARTER STUNG MOST

Of all the criticism Hood has faced, that of the ex-president, an
internationally recognized voting expert, stung the most. She
responded with a letter to Carter and an invitation -- issued
repeatedly over the telephone by her staff -- for Carter to come to
Florida and see elections in action.

Still, Hood chalks up the Carter letter to the politics of the
presidential race. Hood firmly believes that much of the criticism,
especially from Democrats brandishing lawsuits, is partisan sniping,
done deliberately to confuse and polarize potential voters.

She refuses to take the criticism personally, saying that she learned
long ago as mayor of Orlando to separate the personal from the political.

''It's not personal; it's the position,'' Hood, 54, said. ``That's
exactly what it is. It's an easy target for the people who have an
agenda. . . . It hasn't been until the past few months that, all of a
sudden, certain questions have been raised.''

STARRING ROLE

It doesn't matter who is the top election official in Florida; anyone
overseeing elections this year would assume the starring role in the
state's storied elections history, said David Johnson, former
executive director of the state Republican Party.

''Since Election Day of 2000, whoever was going to be in that job was
going to be under a microscope,'' Johnson said, adding about Hood, ``I
don't think she's partisan at all. The criticism we used to hear about
her [in Orlando] was that she wasn't partisan enough.''

Hood's former colleagues with the Florida League of Cities describe
her as a savvy, smart and hard-working politician who excelled at
building consensus on her way to the top leadership post in the state
organization and the National League of Cities.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, a moderate Democrat, worked with
Hood several years ago to lobby Democratic and Republican state
lawmakers to enact limits on billboards. The governor and his brother,
President Bush, are skilled at surrounding themselves with talented
people like Hood, Naugle said.

''I'm a Democrat, but I still feel like she's doing a good job,''
Naugle said. ``I think a lot of this is just partisan sniping. C'mon,
when did Democrats sue to take Ralph Nader off the ballot? If they
want to criticize Glenda, they should look at their own actions.''

In the 2000 election, Hood served as one of 25 Republican presidential
electors who cast Electoral College ballots for George W. Bush. The
honorific role -- little-noticed until the 2000 election -- was Hood's
last high-profile partisan act before being appointed secretary of
state by Gov. Bush.

She points out that her job as mayor in Orlando was a nonpartisan one
and that she has stepped away from potential conflicts -- a marked
contrast to Harris, who served simultaneously as secretary of state
and co-chairman of the Bush presidential election campaign in 2000.

Hood also notes that the only time she talked to Harris about the job
of secretary of state was when she was appointed to fill the job --
after Harris resigned to run for Congress. Harris called Hood to
congratulate her, Hood said, but that was it.

A HIGH PROFILE

But like Harris, Hood is clearly an up-and-comer within the party. She
was mentioned as a potential running mate to Jeb Bush back in 1998,
and her name frequently makes the list of future contenders for other
high-profile offices, like the U.S. Senate.

As a result, Hood has been unable to shake accusations that she's
pursuing a partisan agenda even though she refused last week to say if
she plans to run for higher office.

''Since 2000, we have improved the technology, and we've improved the
procedures,'' said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho, one
of the most outspoken and maverick election supervisors in the state.
``But the administration of elections is more partisan now than it
ever was before.''

PLEASED OFFICIALS

But many of the state's other election supervisors say they're pleased
Hood recognized that elections should be her No. 1 priority.

Since taking office, Hood has visited the elections offices in dozens
of Florida counties, including all the counties hit by the four
hurricanes. She took poll worker training classes in Orange County and
worked the polls there during the primary.

Kurt Browning, the supervisor of elections for Pasco County since
1981, goes out of his way to praise Hood for paying attention to
elections, noting how she has visited his county three times since she
took the job.

''Katherine Harris was concerned with the arts and international
affairs,'' said Browning, a Republican. 'My thinking was that she
thought `I'll do it if I have to do it.' ''

Hood has been more willing to face detractors, such as librarians
upset by her support for a plan by Jeb Bush to move the state library
to Nova Southeastern University.

So far, Hood also has been more willing to look into television
cameras and answer questions. She will appear on ABC's Nightline and
with Jim Lehrer of PBS to defend elections in Florida -- a departure
from Harris, who refused to talk to the media during the 36-day
recount in 2000.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9946422.htm

__________

Jimmy Carter: Florida conditions suck
by kos
Mon Sep 27th, 2004 at 17:50:29 GMT
Katherine Harris' legacy lives on:

After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald
Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend
changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted
effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented
unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The
government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002.
Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been
implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now
seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that
are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/27/135029/284

_______

Can Florida get the presidential elections right this time?
AP
Friday, October 15, 2004

MIAMI (AP) - When Florida's voters go to the polls November 2, they
will be greeted by more than poll workers and political party observers.

A bevy of international observers and civil rights groups will be
watching to see whether elections will run smoothly in the state where
problems exploded four years ago and held the outcome of the
presidential race in limbo for weeks.

The tight race between President George W Bush and Democrat John Kerry
this year has rekindled memories of the 2000 recount fiasco involving
poorly marked ballots. But some observers are worried that punch
ballots' hanging and dimpled chads, the highlight of the 2000
problems, could pale in comparison this year.

Hoping to alleviate controversy over the elections, the United States
invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to
send observers. Fair Election International, a California-based human
rights group, is already looking into election controversies and plans
to monitor the voting.

Questions remain about the reliability of new paperless voting
machines and how to verify the accuracy of votes cast on them if a
manual recount is needed. Lawyers are wrangling over electronic
voting, provisional ballots, voter registrations and other issues even
before the polls open.

Add investigations into possible voter fraud and intimidation,
glitches that have raised concerns about the system and voters'
suspicions that they could be disenfranchised and Florida elections
officials have their work cut out for them.

"With a month to go, there are too many unresolved issues to feel
confident whether Florida's election system is ready for prime-time,"
said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Florida.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood insists the state is ready for the
test. Thousands of poll workers have been trained, voting machines
have been tested without any major hiccups and early voting at several
polling places is set to begin.

"I believe the supervisors of elections will deliver a successful
election," she said. "That's everybody's goal."

But whether the electronic machines work or not isn't the only issue.
Decisions by elections officials that voids voter registrations for
some people with improperly filled out forms and a law that
disqualifies provisional ballots cast outside a voter's home precinct
are also causing consternation - and lawsuits.

Democrats are readying for a possible battle after the November 2
vote. They have trained more than 10,000 lawyers for action, if
needed, in Florida and other swing states. In addition to monitoring
various precincts, they will be prepared to go to court to challenge
the outcome if they find evidence of irregularities.

"We will be manning every single polling booth in the state of Florida
on Election Day," said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic
National Committee.

The series of hurricanes that swept through Florida this season also
threatens to cause some confusion and test the voting system. Some
counties have lost use of several usual polling places.
I
n a recent Washington Post opinion piece, former President Jimmy
Carter questioned whether the state could hold a fair election, and
wrote that a repetition of the problems of 2000 appeared likely -
specifically voters uncertain whether their votes were tabulated
accurately.

Carter expressed concern over the lack of a uniform voting system in
the state, saying that all voters should "have equal assurance that
their votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal
accuracy."

Governor Jeb Bush, brother of the current president, has said the
criticism of the state's voting machines is "nonsense" and referred to
them as "conspiracy theories."

After a relatively problem-free primary on August 31, Election Day
will be the final test of whether the state has recovered from the
2000 presidential election - when the infamous punchcard ballots led
to 36 days of recounts that resulted in Bush's brother winning the
White House by a slim 537-vote margin.

"I think it's entirely possible some other state may be in the
spotlight," Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the
University of Central Florida. It all comes down to whether we end up
with a close election. The tighter it is, the brighter the spotlight."

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20041014T200000-0500_67666_OBS_CAN_FLOR\
IDA_GET_THE_PRESIDENTIAL_ELECTIONS_RIGHT_THIS_TIME_.asp

____________

REPEAT OF 2000?
Carter: Florida vote at risk

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 28, 2004
WASHINGTON - Former President Jimmy Carter says that despite changes
designed to eliminate voting problems in Florida - where the disputed
2000 presidential election was decided by only a few hundred votes -
conditions for a fair election in that state still don't exist.
"The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now
seems likely," Carter wrote in an opinion piece published yesterday in
The Washington Post.
Touchscreen machines were introduced in Florida after the 2000
election, when punch-cards were responsible for delaying the outcome
of the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Bush won the state by
537 votes, which gave him the presidency.
Carter, citing the experience of his Carter Center in monitoring
international elections, said "some basic international requirements
for a fair election are missing in Florida." Most significant, he
said, were requirements that a nonpartisan electoral commission or
official organize and conduct the electoral process and that voting
procedures be uniform for all citizens.
He said Florida's top election official in 2000, Secretary of State
Katherine Harris, was "highly partisan" and that Harris' successor,
Glenda Hood, has shown "the same strong bias."
He said Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, had done little to
"correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment."
"With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the
only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the
suspicious process in Florida," Carter said.
A Hood spokeswoman, Alia Faraj, said yesterday that she was
"disappointed that a statesman like former President Carter would
submit such a letter" to the newspaper "without even reaching out to
the Florida secretary of state" for comment.
She said that Florida "leads the nation in election reform and we have
had successful elections since the new systems were put in place in
2002 and in hundreds of elections since then" and that Hood "leads the
agency in a nonpartisan manner."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfla283987689sep28,0,3424107.\
story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

__________

ok after some search I believe I have found fragments of this story of
  a military draft of people out of university and college.  It seems
that this regime was exploring a "miliatry draft" of professionals
specifically medics.  Now I have nothing against calling on
professionals to help in a national emergency.  Infact if a crises
occured I would be willing to help if my skills were needed.  BUT!!
the big question was this investigation by this regime for a national
crises or for imperial expansion or for holding on to the resources
stolen by the elite.  Here is some articles I have found:

The Coming Draft - Skills & Combat

This is a Special Military Draft Alert.

In May, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a
document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. It was
revealed that the SSS is currently "designing procedures" for the
implementation of a "Skills Draft" and had held a top-level meeting on
it with Deputy Undersecretaries at the Defense Department. This draft
would change the essential mission of the Selective Service and
require "virtually every young American," male and female ages 18–34,
to register for the Skills Draft and list all the occupations they are
proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire
government. If enacted, the Skills Draft proposed in this FOI-
recovered document would change America as we know it.

The Pentagon is suffering from immediate labor shortages. Recently,
the inactive Ready Reserve had to be called up for the first time
since the Gulf War to fill 5,600 job shortages in the Armed Forces.
DoD said in the recent IRR callup "20% of the call-ups are truck
drivers, 12% are supply specialists who can use a computer to track
supplies, 10% are Humvee mechanics, 7% are administrative specialists
and 6% are combat engineers" (USA Today, August 8, 2004).

Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a
Skills Draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in
its July 13 issue that Karl Rove had polled GOP members of Congress in
September 2002 to see if they would support the President if he
requests reinstatement. The Republicans said they would vote for the
draft. They would likely support the new legislation needed to create
the Skills Draft. While Bush and the Republicans are of course keeping
the return of the draft and the new skills draft as quiet as possible,
many anti-draft organizations have recently begun warning of a "Coming
New Draft. "

The Issue Paper document was revealed through the Freedom of
Information Act by Seattle Post Intelligencer reporter Eric Rosenberg,
who wrote a partial explanation of it that was printed May 1, 2004.

Rosenberg's article was edited, however, and some key points about
this document were omitted in the published article. What follows is a
full explanation of the document.

This document is real, having been acknowledged by the DoD and the SSS
when they said no action is being taken on it at the present time.
However, given the current manpower shortages for certain skills and
nurses, if Bush gets back in, expect all the options outlined in the
Issue Paper to be implemented by the end of December of this year, and
at the least a non-combat skills and medical draft to start next year,
if not the male combat draft, ages 18 –25.

Despite Rumsfeld saying the draft is not needed, this is the same
neo-con administration that has repeatedly lied to and misled the
American people. Draft-age youth and their families are left looking
at a "long, hard slog" in Iraq (Rumsfeld secret memo), the neo-con
plans to invade still more nations, and then having to take Rumsfeld
and Cheney's word not to worry about the draft, that they "are not
considering it at this time."

Although official word is that this secret list of options is not
being implemented—the Issue Paper options have NOT been rejected and
the 6-page proposal is rather sitting in the Pentagon, waiting. In
addition, the SSS itself has said that it is "designing procedures"
(Seattle PI, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning
designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep
track of "virtually every young American" and their skills. Acting
Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the Skills Draft is the "top
priority" of the Selective Service for 2004.

From the FOI document, we now know that on February 11, 2003, Charles
Abell, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness, and William Carr, Deputy Undersecretary for Military
Personnel Policy, met with Lewis Brodsky, the Acting Director of the
Selective Service and some other officials. This is the highest-level
meeting you could have about the Selective Service, outside of
Rumsfeld and his inner circle. They were there to discuss the urgent
"issue paper" now revealed, which starts: "With known shortages of
military personnel with certain critical skills, and with the need for
the nation to be capable of responding to domestic emergencies as a
part of Homeland Security Planning, changes should be made in the
Selective Service System's registration program and primary mission."

Although it would require changes in current draft law, the
far-reaching proposal shows how far the Republicans are going to plan
and prepare for a huge expansion of the draft. The Issue Paper options
include: Change the very mission of the SSS to become a massive
conscription service in the War on Terror for the entire government.
Conscript men and women in a critical skills non-combat draft up to
age 34 with no deferments of any kind, except "essential community
service" (like the Medical Draft). Allow a non-combat draft for
shortages in critical skills, without calling a combat draft. Fill
labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD but the whole
government, especially high-paying professionals like computer
networking specialist or linguist. Create a massive database of
"virtually every young American" ages 18 to 34. This database would be
used to draft in war and to recruit in peacetime. State and even local
governments would be given access to the names for recruitment and
help in emergencies. Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in
which every young person would be forced to send in a
"self-declaration" of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long
list of occupations like the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The
self-declaration is similar to IRS compliance and the filling out and
signing of your tax forms. All young people would be required to keep
the government updated if they acquired a new skill. SSS Compliance
forms will be available at every Post Office. The usual penalties of
imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all
non-registrants. A draft or recruitment could be for any one of the
skills you self- declare on the compliance form, not your current or
primary skill. This greatly increases your chance of being drafted if
you are 18–34. Bring the Medical Draft (HCPDS) up to speed and fully
test it through readiness exercises. Reduce induction time from being
able to deliver all inductees in 193 days down to just 90 days for
skills inductees.

This secret paper urges the mission be changed "promptly," meaning
they really need it, it would draft for the Pentagon as well as the
enormous Homeland Security branches as well as other government
agencies, even state and local!

For obvious political reasons, the decision was made by Bush, Cheney
and Rove to sit on this 6-page proposal until after the election in
November. Yet the SSS was told to go ahead and begin "designing
procedures" for the Skills Draft in 2004 and make it their "top
priority." It can be expected that if Bush gets back in, and the DoD
and SSS are still asking for the Skills Draft, the "Next Steps" part
of the document will be put into action and the most expansive option
to change the SSS mission will be rapidly legislated.

In the secret planning meeting document, the next steps strongly
recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky were:

1. "Promptly" redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to
age 34 for skills, and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the
Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter
millions of names of those registering their critical skills.

2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the
Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA,
NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service,
Public Health Service and other federal, state and local government
agencies.

3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with
recommendation on this skills draft for the entire DHS and the rest of
the government.

4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future
of the SSS.

5. Be prepared to market the skills draft, raising the non-combat age
to 34 and the drafting of women to the Armed Services and
Appropriations Committee.

This proposed expansion of the draft, forcing all people under 35 to
register with the SSS, man or woman, is primarily proposed, according
to the document, because the cost of providing contract professionals,
like computer network specialists, would be "prohibitive." In this
way, the proposed Skills Draft would help preserve Bush's massive tax
cuts for the wealthy by lowering the massive budget deficits.

That's the new Skills Draft and the secret document behind it. But
what about the Combat Draft?

Selective Service has been registering young men for over twenty years
and at any moment the President can go to Congress and ask them to
reauthorize conscription for the male combat draft for ages 18–25. It
doesn't take much to imagine a re-elected Bush going to Congress and
saying "We cannot cut and run from Iraq or the War on Terror. I need
you to reauthorize conscription."

And they would not have to pass a whole new draft law to do it. All
that is needed is a "trigger resolution," which could be passed in the
dead of night—and bingo! No debate, no regular bill, just a short
resolution passed quickly and the draft for men 18 to 25 is back.

That is why the Democratic draft resolution being offered by Rangel
and Hollings is totally irrelevant. These are known protest bills and
actually propose drafting women for the combat draft, just to make
sure they will never see the light of day. Rangel and Hollings offered
them to raise the issue and confront Bush. Hollings even said he
wouldn't vote for his own bill!

They are not needed—and the press and the Republicans will bring them
up as red herrings to distract everyone from what is really going on:
the Republicans, and the SSS are quietly, behind the scenes, oiling up
the draft machinery—getting ready to reinstate for the Spring of 2005.
Taken singly, each of the clues indicating the return and expansion of
the draft might seem insignificant but when you add them all up with
what the Selective Service is doing to gear up the combat draft, a
clear pattern emerges, leading to the inescapable conclusion that a
Bush re-election will see not only a Skills Draft, but a return of the
Combat Draft as well.

What is the proof? The government's own document, the SSS Performance
Plan for Fiscal Year 2004.

The Selective Service System, or the SSS, has for decades operated at
a low level of readiness. Readiness Exercises are conducted on a
multi-year cycle but historically these have been little more than
getting draft board volunteers together and going over the procedures
of what would happen under reinstatement and training new members
every summer. And the draft boards themselves have become 80% vacant
over the decades.

In the current 5-year cycle of exercises, however, the SSS is clearly
ramping up the draft machinery to an unprecedented level.

"Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56
State Headquarters, 442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are
operational within 75 days of an authorized return to conscription."

Tie that to this objective:

An annual report providing the results of the implementation of these
performance measures will be submitted by March 31, 2005.

75 days from March 31, 2005 is about June 15, 2005. According to the
2004 plan, the draft boards will be "operational" then, meaning that
they will be set up in 1,980 local offices around the country. If Bush
asks for reinstatement on April 1, Congress could pass it that night
and the first batch of more than one million 20 year-olds would face
the national lottery as soon as that date, June 15, 2005.

Here is how the $28 million is being spent according to the official
document. Although the Senate rejected the funding request to bump up
the SSS budget to $28 million, the SSS says in one paragraph of the
Performance Plan that budgets will be "adjusted" to cover the
additional cost for 2004:

Strategic Goal 1: Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the
Manpower Delivery Systems (Projected allocation for FY 2004: $7,942,000)

Strategic Goal 2: Improve overall Registration Compliance and Service
to the Public (Projected allocation FY 2004: $8,769,000)

Strategic Goal 3: Enhance external and internal customer service
(Projected allocation for FY 2004: $10 ,624,000)

Strategic Goal 4: Enhance the system which guarantees that each
conscientious objector is properly classified, placed, and monitored.
(Projected allocation for FY 2004: $955,000)

In analyzing each of the 2004 goals in detail it is obvious that there
are hidden "activation bombshells" in this so-called Performance Plan.
Goal number 1 in particular brings the combat induction process up to
95% operational readiness, going so far as to actually hold a mock
lottery drawing this year and to issue sample orders to report for the
famous medical exam. The document does not reveal the day in 2004 the
mock lottery is to be held.

In addition, the Medical Draft, or Health Care Personnel Delivery
System (HCPDS in the document), is for the first time brought up to
full readiness by next year. This draft would take men and women up to
age 44 if they are doctors, nurses or one of 60-some medical
specialties. No medical deferments allowed. Previous readiness
exercises merely went over what would happen with HCPDS and updated
the guide. The 2004 plan actually develops a readiness exercise for
the Medical Draft that would be conducted next year. Plus HCPDS must
be ready to conscript by June, being part of the system.

Goal number four is particularly ominous:

Strategic Objective 4.1: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 48
Alternative Service Offices and 48 Civilian Review Boards are
operational within 96 days after notification of a return to induction.

Strategic Objective 4.2: Develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
for the Alternative Service Employer Network to specifically identify
organizations and associations who can, by law, participate in the
Alternative Service Program. This network will provide jobs for ASWs
at the local level. Prior to activation, SSS will develop a draft MOU
for use when obtaining agreements with qualified employers at the
local and national level.

For 31 years, the Conscientious Objector system, called the
Alternative Service, has lain dormant. The 2004 plan also calls for
this to be brought up to speed and to be ready to decide cases and
place COs in the Alternative Service by July 6, 2005 (96 days after
March 31, 2005). The SSS is even going so far as to draw up the SOPs,
the Standard Operating Procedures which identify local employers
eligible to receive cheap AS workers and to also draw up the actual
MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding the employer must sign to get
their CO workers and allow their mandatory attendance to be monitored.
This is the last obstacle to be hurdled before the draft could
actually be ready for quick activation under the law.

In sharp contrast to all this preparation for a Spring 2005 draft by
Bush, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has proposed a
military plan that rejects any draft, by adding 20,000 active duty
combat soldiers and 20,000 active "reconstruction specialists." At a
Wisconsin high school, Kerry pledged in June, 2004, that the draft
would be "absolutely unnecessary." When asked in April by 130 college
editors in a conference call as to whether he would support a draft,
John Kerry said unequivocally: "No. No draft" and he has criticized
the use of the Guard and Reserve and now the Individual Ready Reserve
as a "back-door draft."

Kerry plans to spend an additional $7 billion to strengthen the
Volunteer Army in what is essentially a "No-Draft Plan," Moreover,
Kerry is strongly opposed to the neo-con plan revealed in Wes Clark's
book, in which Clark was told by a senior Pentagon official that
invasions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan and Somalia are still to come
over the next three years.




___________

Secret report details plan to draft medics

By Robert Pear The New York Times

Wednesday, October 20, 2004


WASHINGTONThe Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the
agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance
and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key
and discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
."A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no
draft."
.Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
."The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could
show that they were providing essential health care services to
civilians in their communities.
.But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."

WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/19/news/draft.html



--- In EcoFeminism@yahoogroups.com, "adorable_snowperson"
<a_cascadian@y...> wrote:
>
> I just heard someone tell me that there is a clause in financial aid
> that if you are paying off your loans and that a military draft is
> called you (the former student.. or a better name "the Indebted") can
> be called to military service.  Has anyone looked into such clauses?
> Of course most males have to register with selective service, but what
> I heard is that this clause even says that you can be called because
> of the contract.
>
>
> just curious if anyone ellse knows of this.. or looked deeper into
> those  documents we sign to get out of economic servitude and into a
> different economic servitude.

Bush charged with War Crimes


this could be very very interesting.  As some of you might know Mr
Kissenger does not step foot in certain countries because of war crime
charges (please do not be shock that Amerika would harbour war
criminals or individuals accused of such things).  Now Chile (a
country with a long legacy of American criminal involvement) has sued
Mr Bush who just happens to have an international summit in Chile next
month.  Anyway I posted two articles on it.  Please enjoy them.  I
would bet he will notstep foot in Chile and if that is the case then I
wonder what other countries will allow suck law suits.




Chile Group Plans Bush Welcome with War Crime Suit

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chileans opposed to the Iraq war have
accused President Bush of war crimes in a criminal complaint lodged on
Tuesday, less than a month before he is scheduled to visit the country.

The suit asks local courts to invoke international human rights
treaties ratified by both countries and arrest Bush and members of his
cabinet for questioning during their visit to Santiago for a summit of
Asia Pacific leaders Nov. 19-21.

The courts usually take a few days to decide whether to accept this
type of complaint and assign a judge who then has power to call people
for questioning before deciding whether to indict. Filing criminal
suits by civilians is common in Chile.

"Under international treaties just because you are head of state does
not mean you are allowed to go out and commit any type of act and not
be judged," said lawyer Juan Enrique Prieto, who filed the suit on
behalf of the Communist Party and Humanist Party in the Santiago
Appeals Court.

Attached to the text of the lawsuit were photographs of U.S. soldiers
committing sexual and physical abuse of prisoners in the Iraq prison
Abu Ghraib. U.S. courts have jailed three soldiers so far for the
abuses in Iraq.

Chile and the United States have close ties and entered a free trade
agreement this year, but anti-Bush sentiment is strong over the Iraq war.

Chile has much rights expertise after enduring the London arrest of
former dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998 on an international arrest
warrant on rights accusations. Pinochet was sent back to Chile on
grounds of poor health but here he faces dozens of lawsuits accusing
him of torture and other abuses during his 1973-1990 rule.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6618677

__________

Bush, officials sued in Chile
26/10/2004 20:46  - (SA)

Santiago, Chile - A coalition of small leftist political groups on
Tuesday sued US President George W Bush and other American government
officials for the abuses against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq.

The suit was filed at the Santiago Court of Appeals, which did not
immediately decide whether it would accept to hear it.

Filing the suit were the Communist Party, the Humanist Party and
Leftist Revolutionary Movement.

Also mentioned in the suit were vice president Dick Cheney, secretary
of state Colin Powell, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former
Iraq administrator Paul Bremer.

"We want Bush to be questioned when he comes here," in November for
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation council summit, said lawyer Juan
Enrique Prieto.

"According to intentional law, Bush is not protected by immunity as a
chief of state, because the crimes at the prison were crimes against
mankind," Prieto said.

"Those crimes violated the Geneva Convention and the Convention
Against Torture, to which both the United States and Chile have
subscribed."

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1611131,00.html

hey all

I thought I would post this because they damn near took away almost all my
bills. I think its worth at least checking out if you have too many bills...

http://grealus.com/adeh1







I posted this on ecofeminism, if you dont want to be a member anymore just email
ecofeminism-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

The elections were stolen using Diebold and a series of attacks by
hackers.

This must be talked about with EVERYONE!!!!

Election 2004: "Sour Grapes" or Voter Fraud

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Mike Whitney

If you believe that George Bush won last nights election "fair and
square" then forget about reading this article. If you know however
that tens of thousands of people who lined up for up to four hours at
a time in Ohio and Florida to have their vote counted, were not
standing there to endorse the aggression and suicidal policies of the
current administration then read on.

The unprecedented high turnout coupled with new registrations (that
were overwhelmingly in favor of John Kerry) suggest that there was
foul play at the voting booths. As a result, consumer investigator and
activist Bev Harris (founder of Black Box Voting) "is conducting the
largest Freedom of Information action in history. On election night,
Black Box Voting blanketed the US with the first in a series of public
records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents
from 3,000 individual counties and townships."

If the Bush people are so confident in their victory let them "put up
or shut up."

The fact of the matter is (as every reasonable person who hasn't been
hoodwinked by the pageantry of election night fraud realizes) that the
election was stolen again in full view of the American public. The
Republican owned voting machines prevailed over exit poll projections
and the will of the American people.

If that's not the case, then let's investigate the computer logs.
According to Lynn Landis' article "Could the AP rig the Election":
"The Associated Press (AP) will be the sole source of raw vote totals
for the major news broadcasters on Election Night.. They refused to
confirm or deny that the AP will receive direct feed from voting
machines and central vote tabulating computers across the country.
But, circumstantial evidence suggests that is exactly what will happen.

And what can be downloaded can also be uploaded. Computer experts say
that signals can travel both to and from computerized voting machines
through wireless technology, modems, and even simple electricity."
Landis just confirms what is already known about "sketchy" electronic
voting and how it invites vote tampering. Her connection between
election machinery, vote totals and the AP, however, has not
previously been made. She goes on to explain that, "AP spokespeople
would not give out information on who sits on their board, however AP
leadership appears quite conservative."

Landis continues: "Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP board of
directors, is also publisher emeritus of the conservative The Dallas
Morning News, a newspaper that endorsed George W. Bush in the last
election. Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor
of AP, was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News before joining AP.
Carroll is also on the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME)'s
7-member executive committee. The APME "works in partnership with AP
to improve the wire service's performance," according to their
website. APME vice president, Deanna Sands, is managing editor of the
ultra conservative Omaha World Herald newspaper, whose parent company
owns the largest voting machine company in the nation, Election
Systems and Software (ES&S)."

It's a cozy relationship considering that ES&S voting machines count
50% of all the votes in the country. The second largest company,
Diebold, is also tied to the Republican Party and promised (in a
comment by Wally Diebold that got widespread attention on the
internet) to "deliver the vote" in Ohio to President Bush.

Both Wally and ES&S apparently succeeded admirably in their task of
undermining the election.

Many readers are probably wondering what happened to the "Help America
Vote Act" that was passed by Congress to avoid the problems of Florida
2000? As Landis reports in an earlier article: "What Congress really
did was to throw $2.65 billion at the states, so that they could
lavish it on a handful of private companies that are controlled by
ultra-conservative Republicans, foreigners and felons." (Diebold, ES&S
and Sequoia were among the big winners)

None of the facts related to the presidential election add up. Voter
registration went up from 105 million to 120 million. In Ohio alone it
went up a whopping 17%. Whenever registration has surged like this in
the past, it has always favored the challenger and precipitated a
change in government.

Not so, this time, and Republican pollsters are eager to convince us
that the reason for this is a renewed interest among the American
public for "moral values". Is that it or are the results simply an
indication of massive (but well calculated) voter fraud?

The exit polling was equally skewed, showing a clear victory for
Kerry. Exit polling has traditionally been a reliable way of
determining the outcome of elections. Not so in Bush-world, where vote
totals are invariably higher for Bush in the contentious areas that
ultimately decide the election.

Give strategist Karl Rove his due; he knew what had to be done and did
it. The rest, of course, has been papered over by the pollsters, pimps
and pundits in American press corps.

Do we need to remind ourselves that representative government can only
be established by the power of the vote? It is the electoral process
that confers legitimacy on government. Without a popular mandate state
power can only be vindicated through force of arms.

Last night American democracy was skillfully subverted and replaced
with a mutant form of corporatism that operates independent of the
will of the people. It's impossible to know what the long term affects
of this will be, but it is a development that should greatly concern
us all.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04482.html
___

The Case For Fraud


November 3 2004
Counterbias.com
by Joseph Cannon





Ignore the rightist snickers. Ignore those who would straightjacket
permissible thought. We have a right to ask difficult questions.

And the question of the moment concerns exit polls and electronic voting.

Some have criticized my pessimistic attitude toward this election, but
I always heeded the warnings sounded by Bev Harris and others
regarding computerized voting. If Kerry did not win handily, he could
not win at all. A truly lopsided vote would have been impossible to
hide, because oversized gaps between polls and election night counts
would prove too suspicious.

Although the vote was tight, such gaps nevertheless exists. And
although they are not massive, the pattern gives us every right to
voice our suspicions.

Remember when networks used to trumpet the accuracy of exit polling?
Last night, I saw on-air talking heads (especially on CNN) loudly
deride these same exit polls as untrustworthy.

Perhaps the methodology has become sloppy. Perhaps respondents have
learned to enjoy fibbing to pollsters. Or perhaps something in our
current vote-tabulation system is fishier than an all-you-can-eat
sushi bar.

Before proceeding, recall the commonly-heard axiom that Democrats tend
to vote late, while Republicans tend to vote early. Many challenge
that belief. Still, keep the notion in mind.

Exit polls published yesterday afternoon (by Slate and a number of
blogs) gave this portrait of certain key results:

OHIO: Kerry 50, Bush 49. FLORIDA: Kerry 50, Bush 49. NEW MEXICO: Kerry
51, Bush 48.

At times, the poll data was even more favorable to Kerry in these
three key states. See, for example, this screen capture of CNN data in
Ohio. No exit poll showed a Bush lead in any of these states.

Here are grounds for suspicion. Electronic voting machines figured
heavily in the final tabulation of the results in Ohio, Florida, and
New Mexico. Moreover, in all three, paper audit trails do not exist.

These states therefore offered the best, safest opportunity for
manipulation of the final count.

Question 1: Even if we grant the potential inaccuracy of exit polls,
how likely is it that in all three cases the inaccuracy would show a
"non-existent" Democratic advantage? Why doesn't the discrepancy ever
work in the other direction?

Question 2: Why did problems afflict exit polling in three swing
states that have widespread computerized voting with no paper trails?

In other states, the exit polling matched the final results rather
well. In Nevada, Illinois, and New Hampshire, computer votes do have
paper trails -- and in those instances, the exit polls tracked the
final totals.

To recap: In three states with no paper trails, we have exit
poll/final tally disagreement. In three states with paper trails, we
have exit poll/final tally congruence.

Coincidence?

Let's return to the notion that Republicans vote earlier than
Democrats. Many dispute that bit of folk wisdom. Even so, is it likely
that the people waiting four, five or more hours in long lines, well
into the cold of the night, underwent this endurance test to demand
more of the same? Shouldn't the polls have showed Kerry's lead
expanding as the night went on, instead of evaporating?

Intriguingly, CNN's exit poll results underwent a mysterious revision
not explained by an increased number of respondents.

Black Box Voting plans to file the world's largest FOIA request to
uncover the internals of the compu-vote. Don't presume that such an
inquest will come up goose eggs:


Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following
the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log
containing a three-hour deletion on election night; "trouble slips"
revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with
security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive
remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even,
in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.
Today's Boston Globe expands on some of the points I've made here:


Although some of John F. Kerry's leads in the state exit polls
narrowed during the course of the day yesterday, there was a
significant discrepancy between the actual vote total and the polling
numbers, particularly in two states believed to be keys to the outcome.

While the exit data had Kerry winning Florida and Ohio by a narrow
margin, the actual tabulated vote late last night had Bush carrying
Florida by about five points and winning Ohio by two. In addition, a
projected Kerry win of about five points in Wisconsin turned into a
very tight contest, and what was projected as a close race in North
Carolina turned into a double-digit win for Bush.
Again: Note the pattern. Why do the exit polls always go wrong in the
same way? Pundits who assail these polls never address this question.

Logic tells us that about half the exit polls would show "false
positives" for the Republican side. But in the past two presidential
elections, they have almost always (should I strike out the word
"almost"?) delivered "false positives" for Democrats only.

The simplest explanation: The Democratic "false positives" are not, in
fact, false. The computerized tally is false.

Remember: If malign parties have tampered with the electronic result,
then our first, best -- and perhaps only -- indication of fraud will
be a conflict between the exit poll data and the "official" results.

As for what to do about it: May I at least suggest a visit to
www.blackboxvoting.org?


Joseph Cannon is a writer and graphic designer in Los Angeles,
California. He runs the Cannonfire weblog.

http://www.counterbias.com/152.html



______

Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 -- Did the voting machines trump exit
polls? There's a way to find out.

Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of
Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box
Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records
requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from
3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election
before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.

America: We have permission to say No to unaudited voting. It is our
right.

Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting
systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal
records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips,
modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.

An earlier FOIA is more sensitive, and has not been disclosed here. We
will notify you as soon as we can go public with it.

Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following
the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log
containing a three-hour deletion on election night; "trouble slips"
revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with
security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive
remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even,
in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.

Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer protection group
for elections. You may view the first volley of public records
requests here: Freedom of Information requests here

Responses from public officials will be posted in the forum, is
organized by state and county, so that any news organization or
citizens group has access to the information. Black Box Voting will
assist in analysis, by providing expertise in evaluating the records.
Watch for the records online; Black Box Voting will be posting the
results as they come in. And by the way, these are not free. The more
donations we get, the more FOIAs we are empowered to do. Time's a'wasting.

We look forward to seeing you participate in this process. Join us in
evaluating the previously undisclosed inside information about how our
voting system works.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
_____

Central Tabulating Machines Connected to Modems



New Info proves that Central Tabulating Computers have modems
connected and are open to manipulation. ie- all this stuff about vote
challengers is just a diversion, because one person can change the
state total from their home computer. Take the day off of work to help
save our country.

	   Yeah sure conspiracy nuts- they can't steal it- wrong. We now have
evidence that certainly looks like altering a computerized voting
system during a real election, and it happened just six weeks ago.

Concerned citizens around the country need to get off their duffs and
do something to save our country. Namely go down to their polling
places and ask that the modems be disconnected. Take a zoom camera and
take pictures for evidence.

Bev Harris- THE authority on securing the vote

=============

MONDAY Nov 1 2004: New information indicates that hackers may be
targeting the central computers counting our votes tomorrow. All
county elections officials who use modems to transfer votes from
polling places to the central vote-counting server should disconnect
the modems now.

There is no down side to removing the modems. Simply drive the vote
cartridges from each polling place in to the central vote-counting
location by car, instead of transmitting by modem. "Turning off" the
modems may not be sufficient. Disconnect the central vote counting
server from all modems, INCLUDING PHONE LINES, not just Internet.

In a very large county, this will add at most one hour to the
vote-counting time, while offering significant protection from outside
intrusion.

It appears that such an attack may already have taken place, in a
primary election 6 weeks ago in King County, Washington -- a large
jurisdiction with over one million registered voters. Documents,
including internal audit logs for the central vote-counting computer,
along with modem "trouble slips" consistent with hacker activity, show
that the system may have been hacked on Sept. 14, 2004. Three hours is
now missing from the vote-counting computer's "audit log," an
automatically generated record, similar to the black box in an
airplane, which registers certain kinds of events.

COMPUTER FOLKS:

Here are the details about remote access vulnerability through the
modem connecting polling place voting machines with the central
vote-counting server in each county elections office. This applies
specifically to all Diebold systems (1,000 counties and townships),
and may also apply to other vendors. The prudent course of action is
to disconnect all modems, since the downside is small and the danger
is significant.

The central servers are installed on unpatched, open Windows computers
and use RAS (Remote Access Server) to connect to the voting machines
through telephone lines. Since RAS is not adequately protected, anyone
in the world, even terrorists, who can figure out the server's phone
number can change vote totals without being detected by observers.

The passwords in many locations are easily guessed, and the access
phone numbers can be learned through social engineering or war dialing.

ELECTION OFFICIALS:

The only way to protect tomorrow's election from this type of attack
is to disconnect the servers from the modems now. Under some
configurations, attacks by remote access are possible even if the
modem appears to be turned off. The modem lines should be physically
disconnected.

We obtained these documents through a public records request. The
video was taken at a press conference held by the King County
elections chief Friday Oct 29.

The audit log is a computer-generated automatic record similar to the
"black box" in an airplane, that automatically records access to the
Diebold GEMS central tabulator (unless, of course, you go into it in
the clandestine way we demonstrated on September 22 in Washington DC
at the National Press club.)

The central tabulator audit log is an FEC-required security feature.
The kinds of things it detects are the kinds of things you might see
if someone was tampering with the votes: Opening the vote file,
previewing and/or printing interim results, altering candidate
definitions (a method that can be used to flip votes).

Three hours is missing altogether from the Sept. 14 Washington State
primary held six weeks ago.

The audit log is 168 pages long and spans 120 days, and the 3 hours
just happen to be missing during the most critical three hours on
election night.

Election officials: Disconnect those modems NOW. If you don't: You
gotta be replaced.
Reporters: Some election officials will lie to you. Show your kids
what bravery looks like. Be courageous. Report the truth.
Citizens: Please help us by joining the Cleanup Crew. For now, e-mail
crew@... to join, since our signup form has been taken out.
Candidates: Make a statement. Do not concede on Election Night. Wait
until audits and records can be examined. Note that most voting
machine problems will be found between Nov. 3-12, during the canvass,
and a few weeks later, when public records requests are obtained.


More from Bev here, including a video they made of the chimp pushing
some buttons to start a script to steal the vote.

http://blackboxvoting.org/

===========

Anonymous:

It's not just about the Presidential race, but the Bush and the
neocons need to steal the House and Senate races too, or else they'll
be facing trial and Bush/Cheney impeachment. They know it- that's why
they're going to steal it- unless we stop them.

Call all of your friends and family tonight, get organized to hit as
many polling places as possible. Maybe you could each need to pick a
location and keep an eye on them all day... got an ipod and/or
boombox? Bring some inspirational music to make it a festive occasion ;)

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/Free_Peace_mp3s.html

(must get MOSH, MLK, Eddie Vedder)

Take the Day off Work

Go down to your local polling places (ie google "toledo polling
locations") and ask that the modems be disconnected. Bring a camera
and take pictures for evidence. The phone lines need to be unhooked,
anything less is unacceptable. We need to demand the the 'memory
cards' are driven to the central tabulator, and we need you to watch
them box the memory cards, seal the boxes, follow their car as they
drive it to the next location, where you can ensure the seals are
intact and the number of boxes is unchanged.

If we want to reclaim our country, it's going to be up to regular
people like you and me to demand a secure system tomorrow. Think about
it, if they steal this one, after four more years of Bush, will we
ever have an honest election again?




by : Bev Harris

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4116

___

movie at http://www.votergate.tv/
votergate.tv Documentary

The producers of this film have created a thirty minute documentary on
the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines and are making this
film available as a free educational public service in time for the
presidential election. For more information, go to www.votergate.tv.

What This Film Achieves

This film is an investigative documentary uncovering the truth about
new computer voting systems, which allow a few powerful corporations
to record our votes in secret. But the film is not just a warning. It
strongly concludes that elections are harder to defraud when voters
turn out in
big numbers. This documentary is designed specifically to help viewers
navigate past the fear and spin already being thrown at this critical
issue.

The film educates viewers about the dangers now threatening the voting
system. The film surprises and entertains as characters, like
grandmother/investigator Bev Harris, expose the truth, take on the
gatekeepers and hold them to account. It educates citizens about how
to keenly observe and question the process on Election Day and
empowers viewers to hold their election officials accountable.

George Wendt, the actor famous for his role as the good friend Norm on
the hit comedy Cheers, is the narrator.

Bev Harris, is the Executive Director of Black Box Voting
www.BlackBoxVoting.org. According to Vanity Fair Magazine her
investigations are breaking newsthat would have made her career at The
New York Times or Washington Post.

Andy Stephenson, Associate Director, Black Box Voting, is uncovering
nationwide evidence of security risks in America's voting system .

The producers Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and Robert
Carrillo-Cohen are independent filmmakers who decided to create this
30 minute film when they realized that most of the information on this
vital story was not reaching the public through the mainstream media.
They are producing the film in association with Sarah Teale/Teale
Productions and Earl Katz of Public Interest Pictures.

Target Audience

The documentary speaks directly to voters of all ages, and also to
people who have never considered voting before. This is the one issue
that can wake up the people, whether they're Democrats, Republicans,
Libertarians or Greens -- who believe democracy means that every vote
counts.

Production

We are continuing to shoot through the Presidential election and are
receiving contributions to fund the completion of the Post-Election
DVD / Feature
film.

ADDRESS

There are other web sites with Votergate in the title. Please be sure,
when referencing our film that you use the correct web address:
www.votergate.tv.

ABOUT TEALE PRODUCTIONS

Teale Productions (www.tealeproductions.com ) was formed in 1988 and
has since built a reputation as a cutting edge investigative
documentary production and entertainment producing company. Teale has
produced award winning original documentaries and television series
for HBO, AMC, PBS, Channel 4 (UK), and the BBC. Teale Productions is
in constant development with high quality documentaries and original
productions.

ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST PICTURES

Public Interest Pictures (PIP)www.publicinterestpictures.org) is a
non-profit organization committed to creating documentaries that will
not only be seen
by the masses but will also move them. PIP explores progressive issues
currently threatened by governmental policies at odds with the public
interest.


http://www.archive.org/movies/movies-details-db.php?collection=election_2004&col\
lectionid=VotergateTheMovie&from=thisJustIn/

_________

E-voting irregularities raise eyebrows, blood pressure
Concern over electronic voting technology was not assuaged Tuesday as
glitches, confusion and human error raised a welter of problems across
the country, even while e-vote watchdogs prepared to file suits
challenging the results derived from the controversial machines.

New rules, new voters and a tight presidential contest combined to
create "a recipe for problems," said Sean Greene, who was watching
Cleveland polls for the Election Reform Information Project, a
nonpartisan research group on election reform.

Nearly one in three voters, including about half of those in Florida,
were expected to cast ballots using ATM-style voting machines that
computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software
glitches, hacking and malfunctioning.

In South Carolina, problems were reported in a handful of precincts in
two counties using electronic machines. Officials said voters were
forced to switch to paper ballots while technicians got the iVotronic
touch screens from Electronic Systems & Software up and running within
about 90 minutes.

And in Volusia County, Fla., a memory card in an optical-scan voting
machine failed Monday at an early voting site and didn't count 13,000
ballots. Officials planned to feed the ballots, in which voters fill
in a bubble, and count them Tuesday.

Many of the problems with electronic voting — whether accidental or
intentional — may not be known until well after Tuesday, if at all.
Most of the ATM-style machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper
records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's VerifiedVoting.org, which has
been monitoring the implementation of e-voting machines in the U.S.,
warned on Monday that over 20 percent of the machines tested by
observers around the country failed to record votes properly. The
organization recommended that voters choosing to use touchscreen
voting methods be sure to double-check the summary screen to confirm
that their votes had been properly registered.

BlackBoxVoting.org, the site organized by e-voting activist Bev
Harris, announced early Wednesday that it plans to conduct what the
site describes as the largest Freedom of Information Act request in
history, requesting internal computer logs and other documents from
3,000 individual counties and townships using electronic voting machines.

According to a release posted on the site, "Such a request filed in
King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following the primary election
six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour
deletion on election night; 'trouble slips' revealing suspicious modem
activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental
disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll
workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black
Box Voting activists."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-11-03-evote-trouble_x.htm


Please copy and paste these articles and pass them on to other people.

the second Christo-Fascist coup.. these Christian Reconstructionalist
or Dominion Theologist who own and control the voting machines believe in:

"The prison system would be eliminated. A system of just restitution
would be established for some crimes. The death penalty would be
practiced for many other crimes. There would be little need for
warehousing of convicted criminals.

Legal abortions would be banished; those found to be responsible for
illegal abortions would be executed.

The reinstitution of slavery appears to be a hot button item among
Reconstructionists. We have received a few negative E-mails which
complained that the movement does not recommend slavery. But we have
received many more Emails from Reconstructionists claiming that
legalizing slavery would be good for North America."

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

here are some articles on these people and their hatred of civil
liberties and democracy:


How George W. Bush Won the 2004 Presidential Election
By Sandeep Atwal
InfernalPress.com

Purging voter lists is just the beginning: the U.S. has embraced a
form of electronic voting that is unreliable, unverifiable and funded
by the radical Christian right.

ES&S, Diebold and Sequoia may not be household names like Enron or
Arthur Andersen, but these three companies will decide America's next
president. In the 2004 presidential election, the full effect of
electronic voting will be felt for the first time and these are the
companies that will report the majority of the results.

Despite assurances from the corporations that own these machines, the
reliability of electronic voting is under intense criticism. One of
the most comprehensive examinations of electronic voting fraud came
from brothers James and Kenneth Collier. In their 1992 book Votescam:
The Stealing of America, the brothers detailed the long history of
voting fraud over the past twenty-five years with a special focus on
voting machines. American politicians and large media outlets have
ignored their book, and their charges remain unanswered.

Now, their concerns are being echoed by a new group of writers,
journalists and activists who have raised alarming and explosive
details about electronic voting in America. While academics such as
Professors Rebecca Mercuri and David Dill and organizations like the
Association for Computing Machinery have carefully documented how
voting systems are vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation, journalists
Lynn Landes, Jerry Bowles and Bev Harris are alerting Americans to an
electronic coup d'etat in the making. If their charges are true, and
there is little evidence to contradict their claims, George W. Bush
has already won the 2004 election.

***************

Florida's Folly Goes National

     "Given the outcome of our work in Florida and with a new president
in place, we think our services will expand across the country."
     -- Martin L. Fagan, ChoicePoint Vice-President

To understand how George W. Bush will win the next presidential
election, it helps to understand how he won the last one. While all
public attention rested on hanging chads, butterfly ballots and a
skewed recount in the wake of the 2000 Presidential election, the root
of the problem has been overlooked. As investigative reporter Greg
Palast uncovered, the state of Florida purged over 90,000 people from
their list of eligible voters under the guise that they were felons.
In fact, almost none of the disenfranchised voters were felons...but
almost all were blacks or democrats.

Palast's investigation revealed that at the heart of this ethnic
cleansing of voter lists was the creation of a new centralized
database for the state of Florida. In 1999, the state fired the
company they were paying to compile their "scrub" lists and gave the
job to Database Technologies (DBT, now ChoicePoint). DBT, a private
firm known to have strong Republican ties was paid $2.3 million to do
the same job that had previously been done for $5,700.

The first list of felons from DBT included 8,000 names of felons from
Texas supplied by George Bush's state officials. The state government
said they were all felons, and thus barred from voting under federal
law. Local officials complained about the list and DBT issued a new
one, this time naming 58,000 felons. Palast discovered that the one
county that went through the process of checking the new list name by
name found it was 95% wrong.

Because of the way DBT compiled its erroneous list, Florida voters
whose names were similar to out-of-state felons were barred from
voting. An Illinois felon named John Michaels could knock off Florida
voters John, Johnny, Jonathan or Jon R. Michaels.

DBT didn't get names, birthdays or social security numbers right, but
they were matched for race, so a felon named Joe Green only knocked
off a black Joe Green, but not a white person with the same name.
There was no need to guess about the race of the disenfranchised: a
voter's race is listed next to his or her name in many Southern states
including Florida because racial ID is required by the Voting Rights
Act of 1965.

DBT's fee of $2.3 million was supposed to include verification that
the individuals on their list were actually felons, but Palast's
investigation showed that DBT could not provide any evidence that they
made a single phone call to verify the identity of the names scrubbed
prior to the 2000 Presidential Election.

Unfortunately, nothing is preventing this purge from taking place
again on a national scale. Due in large part to the attention paid to
butterfly ballots and hanging chads in the fall of 2000, the new Help
America Vote Act (HAVA) demands that every state replicate Florida's
system of centralized, computerized voter files before the 2004
election, presumably to avoid the paper-ballot confusion of the
Florida recount. Martin Luther King III and Greg Palast recently
co-authored a piece on the dangers of such databases, recalling the
Florida debacle. Their conclusion: "Jim Crow has moved into cyberspace
-- harder to detect, craftier in operation, shifting shape into the
electronic guardian of a new electoral segregation."

ChoicePoint already has contracts with numerous states to provide
electronic voter lists purged of supposed felons. They are a natural
choice as one of the U.S.'s largest database companies. ChoicePoint
provides information on federal criminal records by district for 43
states and also provides online access to more than 63 million
criminal records for all fifty states. Who better to provide
HAVA-mandated voter lists to state governments?

***************

You Voted Republican, Trust Us

     "It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting."
     -- Tom Stoppard, 1972

Purged voter lists are only one method of pre-determining the outcome
of an election. An even more serious problem lies inside the voting
machines themselves. While representatives of Diebold, ES&S and
Sequoia herald the benefits of their systems, not everyone shares
their enthusiasm. Dr. Rebecca Mercuri is an Assistant Professor of
Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College and has been referred to as "the
leading independent expert on electronic voting technology." Shortly
before the 2000 Presidential election, Mercuri defended her Ph.D.
dissertation on the subject of "Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks and
Balances" at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mercuri's website is an astonishing checklist of the lack of
safeguards and other failings that plague the current crop of
electronic voting systems. One of Mercuri's primary concerns is that
electronic systems provide no way for a voter, or election officials,
to verify that a cast ballot corresponds to the vote being recorded.
As Mercuri notes on her site, "Any programmer can write code that
displays one thing on a screen, records something else, and prints yet
another result." There is no known way to ensure that this is not
happening inside of a voting system. Companies such as Diebold, ES&S
and Sequoia, which manufacture the machines and provide the code that
runs them, simply take a "trust us" approach.

Mercuri also reports that no electronic voting system has been
certified to even the lowest level of the U.S. government or
international computer security standards such as the ISO Common
Criteria, nor are they required to comply with such standards. Thus,
no current electronic voting system is secure by the U.S. government's
own standards.

Electronic voting systems without individual printouts for examination
by voters do not provide an independent audit trail. All voting
systems can make mistakes and the ability to perform manual
hand-counts of ballots is the only way to verify results. Computer
glitches are already cropping up all across the United States.
Numerous irregularities with electronic voting machines have already
been reported:

     * In Georgia, which recently purchased 22,000 Diebold touch
screens, some voters touched one candidate's name on the screen and
saw another candidate's name appear
     * A former news reporter in Florida discovered that votes were
being tabulated in 644 Palm Beach precincts: but Palm Beach only has
643 precincts. An earlier court case in Florida found the same
discrepancy. A reporter in New Jersey observed 104 precincts with
votes in an area that has only 102 precincts.
     * Baldwin County results showed that Democrat Don Siegelman won
the state of Alabama. However, the next morning, 6,300 of Siegelman's
votes disappeared and the election was handed to Republican Bob Riley.
A recount was requested and denied.
     * In North Carolina, a software programming error caused
vote-counting machines to skip over several thousand votes, both
Republican and Democratic. Fixing the error turned up 5,500 more votes
and reversed the election.
     * In Comal County Texas, an uncanny coincidence resulted in three
Republican candidates winning by exactly 18,181 votes each. Two other
Republican candidates outside Texas also won by exactly 18,181 votes.
     * In October, election officials in Raleigh, N.C., discovered that
early voters had to make several attempts to record their votes on
ES&S systems. Officials compared the number of voters to the number of
votes counted and realized that 294 votes had been lost.
     * A report from the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project states
that an estimated 1.5 million presidential votes were not recorded in
2000 because of difficulties using voting equipment and that
electronic machines have the second highest rate of unmarked,
uncounted and spoiled ballots in presidential, Senate, and governor
elections over the last 12 years.

Federally mandated voting machines, almost exclusively manufactured by
ES&S, Diebold and Sequoia are being constructed and tested under
obsolete FEC recommendations. The US has authorized spending of over
four billion dollars on new voting equipment, but as Mercuri notes,
"failed to require or enforce adequate security, usability,
reliability, and auditability controls over the products being
purchased." The numerous flaws cited above ably demonstrate Mercuri's
point.

Her concerns are echoed by Professor David Dill from Stanford
University. He has created a resolution warning of the dangers of
electronic voting machines. "Do not be seduced by the apparent
convenience of "touch-screen voting" machines, or the "gee whiz"
factor that accompanies flashy new technology," he writes. "Using
these machines is tantamount to handing complete control of vote
counting to a private company, with no independent checks or audits.
These machines represent a serious threat to democracy."

***************

Chuck Hagel and Nebraska's Upset

     "If you want to win the election, just control the machines."
     - Charlie Matulka, Nebraska Senatorial Candidate

Chuck Hagel first ran for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska in 1996.
Electronic voting machines owned by Election Systems & Software (ES&S)
reported that he had won both the primaries and the general election
in unprecedented victories. His 1996 victory was considered one of the
biggest upsets of that election. He was the first Republican to win a
Nebraska senatorial campaign in 24 years and won virtually every
demographic group, including many largely black communities that had
never before voted Republican.

Six years later Hagel ran again against Democrat Charlie Matulka in
2002, and won in a landslide. He was re-elected to his second term
with 83% of the vote: the biggest political victory in the history of
Nebraska. Again, the votes were counted by ES&S, now the largest
voting machine company in America.

While these victories could be dismissed simply as a Republican upset,
a January 2003 article in the independent Washington paper The Hill
revealed interesting details about Hagel's business investments and
casts a different light on his election successes. Chuck Hagel was CEO
of ES&S (then AIS) until 1995 and he is still a major stockholder of
the parent company of ES&S, McCarthy & Company. Hagel resigned as CEO
of ES&S to run for the Senate and resigned as president of the parent
company McCarthy & Company following his election (where he remains a
major investor).

Today, the McCarthy Group is run by Michael McCarthy, who happens to
be Chuck Hagel's treasurer. Hagel's financials still list the McCarthy
Group as an asset, with his investment valued at $1-$5 million.
Campaign finance reports show that Michael McCarthy also served as
treasurer for Hagel until December of 2002.

ES&S also has a connection to the Bush family. Jeb Bush's first choice
as running mate in 1998 was Sandra Mortham who was a paid lobbyist for
ES&S and received a commission for every county that bought its
touch-screen machines.

The Hill's revelations of Hagel's conflict of interest was disturbing
enough to cause Jan Baran, one of the most powerful Republican lawyers
in Washington D.C., and Lou Ann Linehan, Senator Chuck Hagel's Chief
of Staff, to walk into The Hill's offices to "discuss" the story.
According to the author of the article, Alex Bolton, nothing similar
had happened in the three-and-a-half years he's worked for the paper.
It was, no doubt, a story Hagel would rather see go unreported.

***************

Helping America Vote Right

     "The Christian worldview is the answer. We need Christian
statesmen who press for the Crown Rights of Jesus Christ in all areas
of life. This isn't political salvation or an overnight fix. It will
take decades of mobilization and confrontation to undo a century of
godless socialism. It must be a grassroots movement that starts in
individual families and churches and then moves outward to take
dominion. It must encompass every area of life and not just the
political arena. Finally, it must start soon, for there isn't much
time left. The Florida elections have taught us that the Democrats
with their liberal/socialistic worldview will stop at nothing to seize
control of the government."
     -- Dr. Val Finnell, published by the Chalcedon Institute

If the connections between Hagel and ES&S seem suspect, the origins of
America's largest electronic voting machine companies may be just as
distressing, especially for those who venerate the separation of
church and state. The convoluted system of renaming and buyouts of
America's voting system companies is a complicated story. However,
once the various corporate trails have been followed, a disturbing
picture comes into focus.

Brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich founded American Information Systems.
Bob is currently president of Diebold and Todd Urosevich is Vice
President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S. (In 1999, American Information
Systems, purchased Business Records Corp to become ES&S.)

American Information Systems (AIS) was primarily funded with money
from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of the Howard F. Ahmanson
Co. The majority stake in ES&S is still owned by Howard F. Ahmanson
and the Ahmanson Foundation

Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy, a hard right
wing organization and also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute. As
the institute's own site reports, Chalcedon is a "Christian
educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and
promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our
emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the
necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a crucial factor in the
challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere..."
Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism, which mandates
Christ's dominion over the entire world. The organization's purpose is
to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society.

***************

Solutions and Alternatives

Few individuals who are trying to alert citizens to the dangers of
electronic voting are against computer voting unequivocally. Rather,
the complaints focus on the lack of a verifiable paper trail and the
inability of the public to examine the code that runs the machines.
Professor Mercuri's October 2002 article, "A Better Ballot Box?"
provides a solution to these concerns. She also poses a series of
questions that she believes must be answered in order to allay
security concerns. Mercuri's work is partly an attempt to design a
machine in line with minimum standards set by the U.S. federal
government, unlike the voting machines currently being installed
across America.

The New York State Assembly recently passed legislation that
specifically requires that machines "produce and retain a voter
verified permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity" (but
fails to mention the code that runs the machines). Rep. Rush Holt has
introduced federal legislation, The Voter Confidence and Increased
Accessibility Act of 2003 with similar aims. The measure would require
all voting machines to produce an actual paper record by 2004 that
voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election
officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer
malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity.

Other solutions exist to ensure the integrity of voting machines and
address the concerns of people like Professor Mercuri. Jason Kitcat is
the author of the Free e-democracy project, an open source project
that builds Internet voting software. Likewise, Australia makes the
code for their machines available online whereas American companies
jealously guard the code that runs their machines. It seems a fair
question, considering the list of problems that currently plague
voting equipment: why are none of these alternatives being investigated?

The 2004 election will be the first to use nation-wide electronic
voting. With the purging of voter lists, secrecy surrounding voting
machines, the lack of a verifiable paper trail combined with voting
machine companies with strong Republican ties and funding from the
radical right, a Bush victory is all but inevitable. Welcome to the
machines.

Update: Scoop.co.nz has the latest on an investigation by Bev Harris,
revealing glaring holes in the U.S. election system. Her detailed
account is a must-read.


--- ENDS ----

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00147.htm

________




CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISM, DOMINION THEOLOGY, AND THEONOMY


History:

Christian Reconstructionism, Dominion Theology and Theonomy are not
denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated beliefs
which are followed by members of a wide range of Christian
denominations. They have no connection at all to Reconstructionist
Judaism, which is a liberal group within Judaism.

Generally speaking:
	 Christian Reconstructionism arose out of conservative Presbyterianism
in the early 1970's. Followers believe "that every area dominated by
sin must be 'reconstructed' in terms of the Bible." 1
	 Dominion Theology is derived from Genesis 1:26 of the Hebrew
Scriptures (Old Testament):

     "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over
the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move
along the ground.'" (NIV)

Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave mankind
dominion over the animal kingdom. Dominion theologians believe that
that this verse commands Christians to bring all societies, around the
world, under the rule of the Word of God.
	 Theonomy (Greek for "God's Law") includes the concept that "God�s
revealed standing laws are a reflection of His immutable moral
character and, as such, are absolute in the sense of being
nonarbitrary, objective, universal, and established in advance of
particular circumstances (thus applicable to general types of moral
situations)." 6,7 Thus, each of the 613 laws given to Moses and
recorded in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew
Scriptures) are binding on people of all nations, cultures, and
religions forever, except for those laws which have been rescinded or
modified by further revelation.

The term Reconstructionism has been used to refer to various
combinations of the preceding three terms. This type of confusion is
common in the field of religion. Many words such as Christian,
Fundamentalist, Occult, New Age, Reconstructionism, Unitarian etc.
have been assigned so many different interpretations by different
groups in different eras that they are almost meaningless.

Its most common form, Theonomic Reconstructionism, represents one of
the most extreme forms of Fundamentalist Christianity thought. The
followers are attempting to peacefully convert the laws of United
States so that they match those in the Hebrew Scriptures. They intend
to achieve this by using the freedom of religion in the US to train a
generation of children in private Christian religious schools. Later,
their graduates will be charged with the responsibility of creating a
new Bible-based political, religious and social order. One of the
first tasks of this order will be to eliminate religious freedom.
Their eventual goal is to achieve the "Kingdom of God" in which much
of the world is converted to Christianity. They feel that the power of
God's word will bring about this conversion. No armed force or
insurrection will be needed; in fact, they believe that there will be
little opposition to their plan. People will willingly accept it if it
is properly presented to them.

All religious organizations, congregations etc. other than Christian
would be suppressed. Nonconforming Evangelical, main line and liberal
Christian religious institutions would no longer be allowed to hold
services, organize, proselytize, etc. Society would revert to the laws
and punishments of the Hebrew Scriptures. Any person who advocated or
practiced other religious beliefs outside of their home would be tried
for idolatry and executed. Blasphemy, adultery and homosexual behavior
would be criminalized; those found guilty would also be executed. At
that time that this essay was originally written, this was the only
religious movement in North America of which we were aware which
advocates genocide for followers of minority religions and
non-conforming members of their own religion. Since then, we have
learned of two conservative Christian pastors in Texas who have
advocated the execution of all Wiccans. Ralph Reed, the executive
director of the conservative public policy group the Christian
Coalition has criticized Reconstructionism as "an authoritarian
ideology that threatens the most basic civil liberties of a free and
democratic society."

Leading writers in the movement are:
	 Greg L. Bahnsen of the Southern California Center for Christian Studies.
	 David Chilton. He adopted hyper-preterism, (a.k.a. full or complete
perterism) a particular belief about end time events. He was basically
ostracized from the Christian Reconstruction camp afterwards.
	 Gary DeMar.
	 Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
	 Gary North of the Institute for Christian Economics. He is a prolific
author.
	 Larry Pratt: head of the Gun Owners of America and English First, a
group opposed to non-English speaking immigrants and bilingual
education. Author of "Armed People Victorious" which documents
Guatemalan and Philippine militias and para-military death squads.
Campaign co-chair of the Buchanan presidential campaign in 1996.
	 John Quade.
	 Rousas John Rushdoony of the Chalcedon Foundation is often considered
the founder of Christian Reconstructionism. Author of Institutes of
Biblical Law.
	 Rev. Andrew Sandlin.

Beliefs:

According to Gary DeMar, a popular Reconstructionist author, the
foundation of Reconstructionism is a unique combination of three
Biblical doctrines:

    1. Regeneration of the individual, through an intimate relationship
with Christ
    2. Individuals guiding their lives closely by following a specified
subset of Biblical laws
    3. Promoting of the world-wide Kingdom of God. 2

Specific beliefs include
	 A rejection of Antinomianism: the belief that salvation is obtained
totally through faith and not through performing good works and living
a moral life
	 Presuppositionalism: the acceptance on faith that the Bible is true.
They do not attempt to prove  that God exists or that the Bible is true.
	 Inerrancy: the belief that the Bible, as originally written, is
totally free of error.
	 Postmillennialism: the belief that Christ will not return to earth
until much of the world has converted to Christianity. This will not
take place for some considerable time; it will not be a painless
transition. Most Fundamentalists and other Evangelists hold to a
different view. They are Premillenialists and believe that all (or
almost all) of the preconditions of Christ's return have been met.
They expect Jesus' second coming to occur s soon.
	 The laws contained in the Hebrew Scriptures can be divided into two
classes: moral and ceremonial. Christians are not required to follow
the ceremonial laws, because Jesus has liberated them from that
responsibility. However, all persons must follow those moral laws
which were not specifically modified or cancelled by further
revelation --generally in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament).
(Non-reconstructionist Christians generally divide these laws into
three classes: moral, civil and ceremonial law, and generally believe
that most Old Testament laws are no longer binding on Christians.)
	 The moral laws given by God to the ancient Israelites reflect of
God's character, which is unchangeable. Most of the laws are intended
for all nations, cultures, societies, religions and all eras,
including the present time. However, there are a few laws, in such
areas as personal safety and sanitation, which are no longer
applicable because of changes in architecture and sewage disposal.
These do not need to be obeyed.
	 The primacy of the Hebrew Scriptures, relative to the Christian
Scriptures (New Testament). All of the Hebrew Scriptures'
non-ceremonial laws are still in force, unless they have been
specifically rescinded or modified by verses in the Christian
Scriptures. "Only if we find an explicit abandonment of an Old
Testament law in the New Testament, because of the historic
fulfillment of the Old Testament shadow, can we legitimately abandon a
detail of the Mosaic law." 3 This is largely supported by their
interpretation of Matthew 5:17:

     "Do you think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (NIV)

	 Civil laws must match the Bible's moral rules. That is, anything that
is immoral (by their standards) is also to be criminalized.
	 The only valid legislation, social theory, spiritual beliefs,
economic theory are those derived from the Bible
	 In every aspect of life, there are only two options: God-centered or
man-centered; Theonomy or autonomy. Their political goal is to ban the
latter, everywhere. Each individual, family, church, government and
society must be reconstructed to eliminate sin. Each Christian has the
responsibility to contribute to this conversion.
	 They oppose mixed marriages. R.J. Rushdoony wrote about opposition to:

     "inter-religious, inter-racial, and inter-cultural marriages, in
that they normally go against the very community which marriage is
designed to establish." 4

Rushdoony's condemnation of inter-racial marriage appears to have been
his own and unrelated to the biblical text. It was not shared by other
Reconstructionists.

	 Reconstructionists regard the Gods and Goddesses of all other
religions to be "the devil," and their teachings to be false. They
would attempt to replace all religions with their version of
Christianity. For example, David Chilton wrote about Judaism:

     "The god of Judaism is the devil. The Jew will not be recognized
by God as one of His chosen people until he abandons his demonic
religion and returns to the faith of his fathers--the faith which
embraces Jesus Christ and His Gospel." 5

Of course, there exists diversity of opinion within the
Reconstructionist movement. Not all followers will necessarily agree
with all the above statements of the movement's leaders

Practices:

If they gained control of the US or Canadian federal government, there
would be many changes:
	 The use of the death penalty would be greatly expanded, when the
Hebrew Scriptures' laws are reapplied. People will be executed for
adultery, blasphemy, heresy, homosexual behavior, idolatry,
prostitution, evil sorcery (some translations say Witchcraft), etc.
The Bible requires those found guilty of these "crimes" to be either
stoned to death or burned alive. Reconstructionists are divided on the
execution method to be used.
	 A church or congregation which does not accept the Mosaic Law has
another god before them, and is thus guilty of idolatry. That would be
punishable by death. That would include all non-Christian religious
organizations. At the present time, non-Christians total two-thirds of
the human race.
	 The status of women would be reduced to almost that of a slave as
described in the Hebrew Scriptures. A woman would initially be
considered the property of her father; after marriage, she would be
considered the property of her husband.
	 It would be logical to assume that the institution of slavery would
be reintroduced, and regulated according to Biblical laws. Fathers
could sell their daughters into slavery. Female slaves would retain
that status for life. People who owned slaves would be allowed to
physically abuse them, as long as they did not beat them so severely
that they died within three days.
	 Polygyny and the keeping of concubines were permitted in the Old
Testament. However, Reconstructionists generally believe in marriage
between one man and one woman only. Any other sexual expression would
be a capital crime. Those found guilty of engaging in same-sex,
pre-marital or extra-marital sex would be executed.
	 The Old Testament "Jubilee Year" system would be celebrated once
more. Every 50 years, the control of all land reverted to its original
owners. This would require every part of North American land to be
returned to the original Aboriginal owners (or perhaps to those
persons of Aboriginal descent who are now Christians). Hawaii would be
given back to the native Hawaiians.
	 Governments would all have balanced budgets
	 Income taxes would be eliminated
	 The prison system would be eliminated. A system of just restitution
would be established for some crimes. The death penalty would be
practiced for many other crimes. There would be little need for
warehousing of convicted criminals.
	 Legal abortions would be banished; those found to be responsible for
illegal abortions would be executed.

The reinstitution of slavery appears to be a hot button item among
Reconstructionists. We have received a few negative E-mails which
complained that the movement does not recommend slavery. But we have
received many more Emails from Reconstructionists claiming that
legalizing slavery would be good for North America.

Joseph Busche and Bill Curry have written a Tennessee Law Book. Their
intent was to show that laws to implement various Old Testament laws
would sound extremely intrusive today. See:
http://www.sullivan-county.com/.

Click below to Visit one of our Sponsors:

Theological conflicts with other Fundamentalist Christian groups:

Theonomic Reconstructionism differs from more common forms of
Fundamentalism in a number of key areas.

Reconstructionists:
	 Emphasize the importance of the Hebrew Scriptures vs. the Christian
Scriptures.
	 Believe that all Christians must attempt to reconstruct society along
Biblical lines.
	 Believe that, once they attain power, they will suppress other
religions through genocide and mass murder, rather than through
proselytizing.
	 Would require all religious groups to strictly follow the Mosaic law.
	 Believe that Jesus' second coming is in the far future.

We have a list of recent developments in Christian Reconstructionism
elsewhere on this site.

References used for the above essay:

    1. Rev. Andrew Saldlin, "The Creed of Christian Reconstruction,"
at: http://www.chalcedon.edu/creed.html
    2. J. Ligon Duncan, III, "Moses' Law for Modern Government: The
Intellectual and Sociological Origins of the Christian
Reconstructionist Movement", Premise, Vol II, No. 5, 1995-MAY-27. See:
http://capo.org/premise/95/may/ssha2.html
    3. Gary North, "The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten
Commandments," Institute for Christian Economics (1986)
    4. R.J. Rushdoony, "The Institutes of Biblical Law", Craig Press,
Nutley, NJ (1973), P. 257.
    5. David Chilton, "The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book
of Revelation", Dominion Press, Ft. Worth, TX (1984), P. 127.
    6. Rev. Andrew Saldlin, "The Creed of Christian Reconstruction,"
at: http://www.chalcedon.edu/creed.html
    7. Greg Bahnsen, "By This Standard," Pages 345-347. Available free
at http://www.freebooks.com

Additional resources:
	 An essay on Christian Reconstructionism with many links is at:
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/www/rrr/recon.html
	 The Chalcedon Foundation of Dr. R.J. Rushdoony is at:
http://www.chalcedon.edu
	 The Southern California Center for Christian Studies (founded by the
late Dr. G.L. Bahnsen) is at: http://www.cleaf.com/~covenant/
	 The Institute for Christian Economics, (ICE) founded by Dr. Gary
North, has many Christian books free for downloading. See:
http://www.freebooks.com/
	 An essay on Christian Reconstructionism with many links is at:
http://abacus.oxy.edu/qrd/www/rrr/recon.html
	 The Chalcedon Foundation of Dr. R.J. Rushdoony is at:
http://www.chalcedon.edu
	 The Southern California Center for Christian Studies (founded by the
late Dr. G.L. Bahnsen) is at: http://www.cleaf.com/~covenant/
	 The Institute for Christian Economics, (ICE) founded by Dr. Gary
North, has many Christian books free for downloading. See:
http://www.freebooks.com/
	 Joseph Conn, "Christians Stoning Teens," at: http://members.aol.com/

Books:
	 G.L. Bahnsen "Theonomy in Christian Ethics"
	 G.L. Bahnsen "By This Standard"
	 G.L. Bahnsen "No Other Standard"
	 David Chilton's "Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators"
	 Gary DeMar, "Christian Reconstruction: What it Is, What it Isn�t"
	 George Grant and Mark Horne, "Legislating Immorality: The Homosexual
Movement Comes Out Of The Closet." (This book advocates the death
penalty for homosexual behavior.)
	 R.J. Rushdoony "Institutes of Biblical Law"

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm


___________


John Stoos, the Chalcedon Institute, Voting Machines, and Christian
Reconstruction

David Neiwert notes some rather disturbing connections between the
Chalcedon Institute, publisher of John Stoos' theocratic gibberish and
Diebold, manufacturer of electronic voting systems of dubious worth:

     One of the other leading lights at Chalcedon is none other than
Howard Ahmanson ... who also has been appearing in the news recently
connected with the brouhaha over computerized voting technology. Seems
Ahmanson is one of the chief owners of American Information Systems
[now Election Systems and Software—CL]-- which is co-owned by
Diebold's president and vice-president.

     from "Onward Christian Soldiers" at Orcinus. Permalinks aren't
working, so you'll have to scroll down the page.


More disturbing than this, however, is what Neiwert tells us about the
Chalcedon Institute itself: it is the leading organization of the
Christian Reconstructionist movement, an unapologetically theocratic
organization:

     Many of you may already be familiar with what Christian
Reconstructionism is about, but here's the short version: They believe
the vote should only belong to Christians, and that the American
government and laws should be explicitly governed by their
fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture.

     again, from "Onward Christian Soldiers."


For the long version, Neiwert points to a lengthy essay by Frederick
Clarkson entitled "Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism
Gains Influence." According to Clarkson, Reconstructionist theology
begins with a doctrine called presuppossitionalism, which was
formulated by the Princeton University theologian Cornelius Van Til.
Presuppossitionalism simply states that knowledge itself is impossible
without the revealed word of God as expressed in the Bible. This is an
obviously self-refuting statement—unless, of course, one is unashamed
of stooping to circular argumentation—but one should immediately be
able to see the shadow it has cast over public discourse. The mildest
version is the amusing sophistry that atheists specifically disbelieve
in the Judeo-Christian God; a coarser and more dangerous one—and one
that I admit I entertained for a while—is that the Deism of some of
the Founders and Framers entails that the United States' founding
documents and thus the United States itself are Christian because
Deism is simply a derivative of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

If presuppositionalism were all of Christian Reconstructionism, it
would be bad enough. But Reconstructionism goes further: it asserts
the whole of Old Testiment law holds regardless of anything Christ
says in the New Testament, that instead of offering the possibility of
redeeming all men, the coming of Christ inagurated a new chosen
people, and it is the duty of the new chosen—the Christians—to subdue
all the earth and all peoples on it. The following is from the work
The Institutes of Biblical Law, by the principal founder of Christian
Reconstructionism, R. John Rushdoony:

     The cultural mandate is thus the obligation of covenant man to
subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it under God (Gen.
1:26-28). The law is the program for that purpose and provides the
God-ordained means of improving and developing plants, animals, men,
and institutions in terms of their duty to fulfil God's purpose. In
every age, men have a duty to obey God and to train and improve
themselves, i.e., to sanctify themselves, in terms of God's law. All
enemies of Christ in this fallen world must be conquered. St. Paul,
summoning believers to their calling, declared,

         (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (II Cor. 10:4-6).

     The Berkeley Version renders verse 6 thus: "We are prepared also
to administer justice upon all disobedience, when your obedience is
fully shown." Moffatt brings out the force of this verse even more
clearly: "I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains
insubordinate, once your submission is complete." Moffatt renders
verse 5, "I demolish theories and any rampart thrown up to resist the
knowledge of God, I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ."

     St. Paul was talking about the cultural mandate. Before the fall,
the task was less complicated. Now man needs regeneration. Thus, the
first step in the mandate is to bring men the word of God and for God
to regenerate them. The second step is to demolish every kind of
rampart or opposition to the dominion of God in Christ. The world and
men must be brought into captivity to Christ, under the dominion of
the Kingdom of God and the law of that kingdom. Third, this requires
that, like Paul, we court-martial or "administer justice upon all
disobedience" in every area of life where we encounter it. To deny the
cultural mandate is to deny Christ and to surrender the world to the
devil.

     from The Institutes of Biblical Law, pp. 724-725. My emphasis.
This and other exerpts from the works of Rushdoony and Gary North, his
son-in-law, may be found at "An Anthology of Reconstructionist
Quotations."


And once the earth is so subjugated, what previously permitted
activities would be forbidden? What would the punishments be?

     * Taking the Lord's name in vain or otherwise cursing would be
punishable by death;
     * Non-Reconstructionist Christians would be considered idolaters,
and idolatry would be punishable by death.

Clarkson lists other capital crimes under a Christian
Reconstructionist regime: adultery, striking a parent, juvenile
deinquency, pre-marital sex (for women only), etc.

That someone holding such views—Stoos—could penetrate into the inner
circle of a major politician's campaign apparatus is disturbing. More
disturbing is that a major figure in the voting machine industry also
holds such views. Most disturbing, however, is the Christian
Reconstructionists' strategy of stealthy infiltration of mainstream
churches and organizations. Reconstructionism is not tied to a single
denomination. Clarkson points out that its ideas have enjoyed marked
success among Pentecostal and charismatic churches, but neither the
source nor the totality of Reconstructionist ideology are apparent to
parisioners. Reconstructionists understand that openly agitating for a
reactionary, repressive theocracy would be counterproductive to their
goal. Here is a rough draft of their long-term strategy:

     ...radical ideas must be gently and often indirectly infused into
their target constituencies and society at large. The vague claim that
God and Jesus want Christians to govern society is certainly more
appealing than the bloodthirsty notion of justice as "vengeance"
advocated by some of the Reconstructionists. The claim that they do
not seek to impose a theocracy from the top down--waiting for a time
when a majority will have converted and thus want to live under
Biblical Law--is consistent with Reconstructionists' decentralist and
anti-state populism, which they often pass off as a form of
libertarianism. Even so, there is an inevitable point when the
"majority" would impose its will. North bluntly says that one of his
first actions would be to "remove legal access to the franchise and to
civil offices from those who refuse to become communicant members of
Trinitarian churches." Quick to condemn democracy as the idea that the
law is whatever the majority says it is, North et al. would be quick
to cynically utilize a similar "majority" for a permanent theocratic
solution.

     from "A Generation of Reconstructionists," Part 2 of Frederick
Clarkson's "Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains
Influence"


To summarize: a principal owner of a major provider of election
machines and software has ties to an organization that seeks to
advance an ideology of disenfrancisement, tyranny, murder, and
expansionism. His firm is providing many of the machines that are
supposed to implement our representative democracy (such as it is.)
Meanwhile, the ideology spreads in a disorganized, partial, but highly
effective way.

Alarming, isn't it? But what does it say about you and me? That we've
squandered what rights we have? That we prefered to be entertained
rather than informed? That we took our rights for granted and are now
in danger of loosing them? That time and time again, when the choice
was between organizing and working to shore up our liberties and
turning on the television, we always chose the latter? That given the
choice between self-determination and a garbage disposal, we always
chose the garbage disposal?

Computerized voting machines are not universal; Christian
Reconstructionism is not the law of the land; President Bush faces a
serious scandal in the Plame affair—although the real scandal should
be that the major casus belli against Iraq was nothing but lies, lies,
lies. If the Bush administration is turned out in '04 and the number
of Christian extremists in government decreased, that's fine, but
that's only a start. The difference between the Dems and Repubs is one
of degree, not kind. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and we
need to rouse ourselves. The struggle is only beginning.
Posted by Curtiss at October 03, 2003 05:59 PM

http://www.panix.com/~hncl/HectorsJournal/archives/000275.html

__________

Dominionist Theology Promotes American Theocracy
http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1277

What the Hell!!!!!



you have to read this article.  Why would an military aircraft do an
military practice in a residential area? and with ammunition as
well???  Is this some sick joke right after the Fascist have declared
a "mandate" of his dictatorship?

National Guard fighter jet strafes New Jersey school in late-night mistake
02:03 AM EST Nov 05
WAYNE PARRY

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) - A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a
nighttime training mission strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds
of ammunition, authorities said Thursday. No one was injured.

The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg
Harbor Intermediate School in southern New Jersey shortly after 11
p.m. Wednesday. The school is a few kilometres from a military firing
range. Police were called when a custodian - the only person in the
school - heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.

Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof.
Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms and there were scratch marks
in the asphalt outside.

The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground
target on the firing range almost six kilometres from the school, said
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New
Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range. He did
not know what led to the school getting strafed.

The plane was about 2,100 metres in the air when the shots were fired.
The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing.
It fires five-centimetre-long bullets that are made of lead and do not
explode, said Webster.

"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said
Lt.-Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the
surrounding communities are our foremost concern."

The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the
District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force
Base in Maryland. The plane returned there after firing the shots,
Webster said.

He would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.

Mike Dupuis, president of the township's board of education, said
school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.

"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds,"
Dupuis said. "It is very scary. I have children in that school and
relatives that work there."

Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers
convention.

The 970-hectare Warren Grove range, about 50 kilometres north of
Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of the
Second World War, long before the surrounding area was developed.

In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practising attacks
at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot
ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.

Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned about
4,500 hectares of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and about
650 hectares in 2002.

© The Canadian Press, 2004


http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w1104107.html

what we must do:  Cascadia

We need annexation to Canada for now! Why you may ask? Because it
would be diplomatically and geopolitically difficult for the Bush
Fascists to launch a civil war on and former region that is part of a
fellow NATO member (infact other NATO allies may help stop potential
attacks from the Fascist Amerikans). We join Canada for now! All the
blue states from Cascadia (Oregon, Washington and Northern California)
or as Pacifica (which includes all of California) to the Great Lakes
and the North East (Altantica?).


what we must do:


1.) We MUST this weekend bring the idea of Cascadia and breaking off
from Fascist Amerika to consciousness of the general population and by
Monday have it be the only conversation in all of Cascadia. Also we
must bring the fact that the election was a farce (print out artcles
or give websites about this like blackboxvoting.org) and this MUST be
part of this dialogue of Cascadia! I would recommend the same if I was
in the other "blue" states for their awakening of regional identity
separate from Bush's Amerika. This should be done with massive
"spamming" and like ACT (American Coming Together.. and if any are
reading this well .. you have lists of democrats now who we can bet
are disenfranchised :))) I would recommend to the less shy to feel
free to talk to your neighbors or that person in the parking lot with
a Kerry bumper sticker (this ofcourse should not be limited to
democrats, but right now they are more visible). Our goal is simple in
this part "To get it to the forefront of every conversation". The goal
is the create critical mass. And if you are inclined to put up sighs
or wave (any of the Cascadian flags) or create pamplets or print out
leaflets talking of Diebold, secession, Cascadia and Cascadian
awakening or get on radio talk shows or whatever. The goal is
dialogue, awareness, education, generating a new paradigm.. an new
group identity with a new future! If this works then Monday even the
sold out local media will have to mention it, because everyone will
have to talk of it.


Warnings!:

a.) becareful of dismissive comments like "it will never work" or "you
are just have sour grapes" or any the other Phucting dismissive
onliners comments that the sheeple spit out. Do not let it down and
ignore the jerk and continue on as if the jerk just passed gas.


b.) the Fascist might orchastrate a "national" crisis like a terror
alert or even a terrorist act which MUST NOT stop this conversation of
Cascadia, secession and election fraud. If this happens the corporate
media and authorative figures will make lots of appeals about "healing
the nation". They will dismiss any movement to liberate us from the
fascists as small and trivial. news personalities will make light of
Cascadia or joke that they (we) are wackos. If any think is even in
the corporate media the overly paid fascist mouth-pieces (we call news
reporters) will end the story with dismissive comments or laughter.

2.) we need a time and place (while there is the energy and
motivation... maybe Friday) to have people gather. My idea it a event.
here is my suggestion "the All Bush flip off". This must be done
through out all Cascadia from Bellingham to San Fransisco and it must
be done at the same time. For convience I will use Portland as a
example ... Cascadian or disenfranchised Portlanders (remember all the
Kerry supporters on Portland's Waterfront) go to either the Waterfront
or Pioneer Square and put up a image of Mr Bush (maybe Cheney too) and
in one big massive group give them "the finger"! And take pictures
from the images perspective of all gathered flipping the Fascists off
and send it to the White House. The goal of this is NOT just to give
them the collective "finger", but the real goal is to get people
physically together to talk of Cascadia, Cascadians and our future! At
the same time this should happen in other communities.

From this we can expnd to bring in more Cascadians and eventually we
shall march down to Salem or Olympia (for San Fransisco .. I guess you
declare yourself the new administrative seat of South Cascadia) and we
demand secession NOW!

Before such an event happens we need to bring the police and leaders
into our movement. We MUST find out issues that the police and state
employees have against the Fascists.. and they do whether they
recognize it or not. We need to teach them of the budget cuts, union
busting, veteran cuts, issues related to them not being able to
effectively do their jobs. We MUST appeal to them as fathers, mothers,
sisters and brothers who have the same concerns as all of us do over
education, safety, environment, cost of living and so on and so on.

Warning!:

a.) do not let the professional politicians nor charasmatic public
figures usurp OUR movement. Especially DO NOT LET some dump as
democrat politician tell us that we must "heal" our community or "this
will take time" or "I promise you this...." or "I am with you..." ...
this MUST be the PEOPLES movement!!! not a time for local
celeberties... infact if you see someone who is a public figure look
beyond them, smile and go hug the unrelated person behind him or her.
I hate how these personalities (remember we are counted as nobodies
until they need your vote or buy their product) steal the lime light
of the people, of causes, of public attention. We have no time for
them and no need for them. Now if they come to be a "nobody" like the
rest of us and are honestly there to flip off Fascism and to awaken
Cascadia.. then they have my blessings.. and I hope yours too.

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cascadian_bioregionalism/

Confirmation Of Concentration Camps For Americans In America



Confirmation Of Concentration Camps
For Americans In America


Free Press International
10.23.2004

During World War II more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned
behind barbed wire concentration camps in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming,
Arkansas, California, Indiana and Utah. President Roosevelt himself
called the facilities "concentration camps" and more than half of
these American prisoners were children.

Former Texas Congressman Henry Gonzales, who is now deceased, was
asked about the existence of civilian detention camps in America
replied, "The truth is yes -- you do have these stand by provisions,
and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping
terrorism...evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in
detention camps."

The week before August 14, 2002 Attorney General John Ashcroft
disclosed a little publicized plan that would allow him to order the
indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of
their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them
"enemy combatants."

According to Army Regulation 210–35, The Civilian Inmate Labor
Program, a new regulation provides Army policy and guidance for
establishing civilian inmate labor programs and "civilian prison
camps" on Army installations.

After 9/11 FEMA moved ahead with plans to create "temporary cities"
that could handle millions of Americans after mass destruction attacks
on U.S. cities. President Bush also unveiled a Homeland Security
proposal to allow soldiers to "enforce quarantines" of civilians in
the event of a chemical or biological weapons attack.

Since the attack on the World Trade Center about 5,000 people, many
who are Americans, have been arrested and "detained" by the Justice
Department with no due process. Sound familiar? Not one single person
has been successfully prosecuted and convicted by Ashcroft's Justice
Department.

The Civilian Inmate Labor Program .pdf
PBS: Children Of The Camps
Presidential Executive Order 12656
Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision
Bush Unveils Homeland Security Plan
The Henry B. Gonzalez Archives
FEMA's Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks
Executive Power Grab On Tap At White House?
The Case Against Bush


http://www.freepressinternational.com/army.10232004.camps.7817625340989.html

TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA
video at http://www.la.indymedia.org/news/2004/11/118865.php

TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA


posted by tick tick on Wednesday November 10 2004 @ 10:20AM PST


TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM armored tanks showed up at
an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.

The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves
in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the
protesters were gathered.

Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police
quickly cleared the street.

The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but after
about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the
tanks were deployed to this location.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/11/10/0844742

____

Anti-war protest in L.A. gets response with tanks

ALSO IN ELECTION 2004

Back to Work
Molly Ivins

Going Down the Stolen Election Road?
David Corn

Imagining a Real Youth Movement
Raj Jayadev

Worse Than 2000?
William Rivers Pitt

Norquist Gets Candid
Bill Moyers

Posted by Jan on November 10, 2004 @ 12:03PM

What the heck happened in L.A. last night? A peaceful antiwar protest
in Westwood got a Robocop response. Two armored tanks came to dispel
the protest. It's unknown at the moment whether the protesters had
permits, or what the rationale for bringing an armored response was by
officials, but what kind of rationale could possibly merit this approach?

     From Indymedia:

         LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks
showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in
Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking
themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most
of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted
to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people
continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes
the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed
to this location.

     There's a video available of this happening.

http://www.alternet.org/election04/2004/11/002663.html


Poland during the Nazi occupation


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html

http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fmotlc.wie\
senthal.com%2Falbums%2Fpalbum%2Fp04%2Fa0218p3.html

Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice

As White House Counsel

GONZALES APPROVED MEMO AUTHORIZING TORTURE: An August 2002 Justice
Department memo "was vetted by a larger number of officials,
including...the White House counsel's office and Vice President
Cheney's office." According to Newsweek, the memo "was drafted after
White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel,
Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel
William Haynes and [Cheney counsel] David Addington." The memo
included the opinion that laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to
the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants."
Further, the memo puts forth the opinion that the pain caused by an
interrogation must include "injury such as death, organ failure, or
serious impairment of body functions—in order to constitute torture."
The methods outlined in the memo "provoked concerns within the CIA
about possible violation of the federal torture law [and] also raised
concerns at the FBI, where some agents knew of the techniques being
used" overseas on high-level al Qaeda officials. [Gonzales 8/1/02
memo; WP, 6/27/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8534-2004Jun26.html;
Newsweek, 6/21/04 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5197853/site/newsweek;
NYT, 6/27/04
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E14FB3C5C0C748EDDAF0894DC40448\
2]

GONZALES BELIEVES MANY GENEVA CONVENTIONS PROVISIONS ARE OBSOLETE: A
1/25/02 memo written by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales said "the
war against terrorism is a new kind of war" and "this new paradigm
renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy
prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." The memo pushes
to make al Qaeda and Taliban detainees exempt from the Geneva
Conventions' provisions on the proper, legal treatment of prisoners.
The administration has been adamant that prisoners at Guantanamo are
not protected by the Geneva Conventions. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo;
Newsweek, 5/24/04 http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481/]

GONZALES ADMITTED HIS VIEWS 'COULD UNDERMINE U.S. MILITARY CULTURE':
The 1/25/02 memo shows Alberto Gonzales was aware of the risk that
ignoring the Geneva Conventions could create for the military. One
concern expressed is that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions
"could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining
the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an
element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries," which is what
happened at Abu Ghraib. Secretary of State Colin Powell strongly
warned against taking this decision, as did lawyers from the Judge
Advocate General's Corps, or JAG. This week, a federal judge ruled
that "President Bush had both overstepped his constitutional bounds
and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions" when he
established military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to try
detainees as war criminals. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo; Bloomberg, 6/14/04
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_woolner&sid=aJ\
Ep1ExaMybo;
New York Times, 11/9/04]

GONZALES BLOCKS INFORMATION FROM CONGRESS: Historically, senators have
been allowed to review some memoranda by judicial nominees. But, in a
letter [about nominee Miguel Estrada], Gonzales told the Democrats
that the administration would not produce the memos, because to do so
would chill free expression among administration lawyers and violate
the principle of executive privilege, which protects the internal
deliberations of the president's aides. [New Yorker, 5/19/03
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030526fa_fact]

As Texas Chief Legal Counsel

DEATH PENALTY MEMOS: GONZALES'S NEGLIGENT COUNSEL: As chief legal
counsel for then-Gov. Bush in Texas, Gonzales was responsible for
writing a memo on the facts of each death penalty case – Bush decided
whether a defendant should live or die based on the memos. An
examination of the Gonzales memoranda by the Atlantic Monthly
concluded, "Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of
crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of
interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." His
memos caused Bush frequently to approve executions based on "only the
most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute." Rather than
informing the governor of the conflicting circumstances in a case,
"The memoranda seem attuned to a radically different posture, assumed
by Bush from the earliest days of his administration—one in which he
sought to minimize his sense of legal and moral responsibility for
executions." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003
http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php]

MEMORANDUM ON TERRY WASHINGTON: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE: In his
briefing on death-row defendant Terry Washington – a mentally retarded
33-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old –
Gonzales devoted nearly a third of his three-page report to the
gruesome details of the crime, but referred "only fleetingly to the
central issue in Washington's clemency appeal—his limited mental
capacity, which was never disputed by the State of Texas—and
present[ed] it as part of a discussion of 'conflicting information'
about the condemned man's childhood." In addition, Gonzales "failed to
mention that Washington's mental limitations, and the fact that he and
his ten siblings were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses,
extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to
the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial
lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Nor did he
mention that Washington's lawyer had "failed to enlist a mental-health
expert" to testify on Washington's behalf, even though "ineffective
counsel and mental retardation were in fact the central issues raised
in the thirty-page clemency petition" it was Gonzales's job to review.
This all came at a time when "demand was growing nationwide to ban
executions of the retarded." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003
http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php]

GONZALES TOLD GOV. BUSH HE COULD IGNORE INTERNATIONAL LAW: In 1997,
Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo for then Gov. Bush to justify
non-compliance with the Vienna Convention. The Vienna Convention,
ratified by the Senate in 1969, was "designed to ensure that foreign
nationals accused of a crime are given access to legal counsel by a
representative from their home country." Gonzales sent a letter to the
U.S. State Department in which he argued that the treaty didn't apply
to the State of Texas, as Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna
Convention. Two days later, Texas executed Mexican citizen Irineo
Tristan Montoya, despite Mexico's protestations that Texas had
violated Tristan's rights under the Vienna Convention by failing to
inform the Mexican consulate at the time of his arrest. (Slate,
6/15/04 http://slate.msn.com/id/2102416)

GONZALES GETS BUSH OUT OF JURY DUTY TO KEEP DUI SECRET: In 1996, as
counsel to Gov. Bush, Gonzales helped to get him excused from jury
duty, "a situation that could have required the governor to disclose
his then-secret 1976 conviction for drunken driving in Maine."
Gonzales argued "that if Bush served, he would not, as governor, be
able to pardon the defendant in the future." [USA Today, 3/18/02
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020318/3948380s.htm]

As Texas Supreme Court Justice

GONZALES DOES ENRON'S BIDDING: As an elected member of the Texas
Supreme Court, "Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales's biggest
contributors," giving him $35,450 in 2000. Overall, Gonzales raked in
$100,000 from the energy industry. In May 2000, "Gonzales was author
of a state Supreme Court opinion that handed the energy industry one
of its biggest Texas legal victories in recent history." Since Bush
brought him into the White House, Gonzales has worked doggedly to keep
secret the details of energy task force meetings held by Vice
President Cheney. [New York Daily News, 2/2/02 ]

ACCEPTING DONATIONS FROM LITIGANTS: In the weeks between hearing oral
arguments and making a decision in Henson v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual
Insurance, Justice Alberto Gonzales collected a $2,000 contribution
premium from the Texas Farm Bureau (which runs the defendant insurance
company in this case). In another case, Gonzales pocketed a $2,500
contribution from a law firm defending the Royal Insurance company
just before hearing oral arguments in Embrey v. Royal Insurance.
[Texas for Public Justice
http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=117&pubid=60]


http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536

Bush Faces Mounting Allegations of Widespread Fraud in 2004 Election


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary ~ November 14, 2004: The evidence is mounting against
George Bush and his election team for committing widespread fraud in
the November 2004 elections. Documented allegations range from
telephone subterfuge to get Democrats to stop voting, to high-tech
warfare that suppressed the votes of thousands of Kerry supporters.

By far the most effective method for Bush may have been the use of
electronic voting machines, provided by three companies run by close
friends of the Bush family. A total of three companies manufacture
"black box" computer voting machines. All three were committed to
re-electing Bush.

Black box voting machines leave no paper trail. No paper trail means
no recounts: what the computer says is the what gets accepted – even
if exit polls show the exact opposite. In Ohio, for example, exit
polls showed Kerry leading Bush. But the black boxes told a different
story.

Diebold Election Systems provided the electronic voting machines that
are in use all over Ohio. Diebold's president, Walden O'Dell, told
Republicans in the summer of 2003 that he was "committed to helping
Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Diebold,
which is based in Ohio, provided computer voting machines for 16 Ohio
counties with somewhere around 800,000 voters.

Bush claimed he won Ohio by 136,000 votes – not counting the
provisional ballots still in dispute. Ohio's 20 electoral votes put
Bush over the 270 mark and effectively handed him the presidency for
another four years.

The Associated Press, quoting election officials, reported that an
error with an electronic voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra votes in
suburban Columbus. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush
receiving 4,258 votes to Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna.
Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Matthew
Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told
The Columbus Dispatch that Bush actually received only 365 votes in
the precinct.

Also in Ohio, eligibility criteria for provisional ballots (which are
expected to favor Kerry) changed after the election in Cuhayoga
County. Ballots without birth dates were ordered to be thrown out even
though earlier instructions clearly stated lack of birth date was not
a disqualifier. Meanwhile, in West Dayton, Ohio, registered Democrats
received calls reminding them to vote on Nov. 5 — three days after the
election.

Over in Nebraska, Sarpy County election officials are trying to figure
out how they ended up with more votes than voters in the general
election. As many as 10,000 extra votes have been tallied and
candidates are still waiting for corrected totals.

In Indiana, in a predominantly democratic county, more than 50,000
votes were not counted due to an electronic voting machine "glitch".
At about 7 p.m. on election day, it was noticed that the first two or
three printouts from individual precinct reports all listed an
identical number of voters. Each precinct was listed as having 300
registered voters. That means the total number of voters for the
county would be 22,200, although there are actually more than 79,000
registered voters. LaPorte County Clerk Lynne Spevak said workers at
the clerk's office thought a computer correction could be done once
they received a software patch from Election Systems and Software, the
Chicago company that makes nearly half the voting machines used in the
United States, including all those used in Nebraska. However, the
patch did not work.

"We thought we could get a copy of it e-mailed to us and start all
over, but once the program was downloaded from Chicago, it still
didn't work right," Spevak said.

In Florida, Broward County officials had to correct a computer glitch
that miscounted thousands of absentee votes, instantly turning a
slot-machine measure from loser to winner and reinforcing concerns
about the accuracy of electronic election returns. The Miami Herald
reported that the bug, discovered two years ago but never fixed, began
subtracting votes after the absentee tally hit 32,500 -- a ceiling put
in place by the software makers.

In North Carolina, The Sun Journal reported that a systems software
glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed
for giving Bush 11,283 more votes than the total number cast.

In New Hampshire, the Republicans were slightly more low-tech in their
approach to cheating: The New Republic reported they simply called up
registered Democrats and told them "you don't have to bother voting,
because Kerry is doing so well we feel there are enough people who
have already voted in the state of New Hampshire."

In West Virginia, democratic leaders in one of the nation's most
hotly-contested battleground states received reports of voter
suppression activities that can be traced back to the Republican
Party. According to the report, Republican operatives, pretending to
be from the Democratic Party, tricked voters into revealing personal
information, and then told them they were ineligible to vote.

These few examples are reportedly just the tip of the iceberg. The
independent watchdog organization, VoteWatch 2004, has documented at
least 123 allegations of voter fraud from around the nation – more
than enough to tip the scale in Bush's favor.

Despite the mounting evidence, many Americans are refusing to question
Bush's legitimacy. But is it so incredible to consider that Bush, who
claimed to have "won" Florida's 27 electoral votes in 2000 because
large numbers of ballots were thrown away, and who was installed in
the White House by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, would cheat to win
re-election?

What worked for Republicans in 2000 still works for them in 2004,
except this time around they had the added benefit of the magical
black box voting machine.

The Republicans have essentially turned the United States into a Third
World dictatorship, where those who want to hold onto power simply
manufacture a façade of democracy to keep the illusion alive. As
Stephen Post at the Daily Collegian has put it: "Bush and his henchmen
have hijacked American policy to serve their own ends."

But Bush and his henchmen have hijacked more than American policy –
they have hijacked and bushwhacked democracy itself. Thanks to them,
this country may never again realize that illusive dream first
articulated by this country's founding fathers.


http://www.whywehatebush.com/news/04_11_cheatingAgain.htmlc

the beginning of hyper-inflation

so why aren't the conservatives throwing a fit with the regime?  Why
are not all "Americans" not up in arms over this?

Here are some articles that were competing with mad cows, "scandalous"
  football commericial with interracial suggestions, the greatest hits
of Britney Spears and the all important e-bay story of the mother of
Christ found in a toasted cheese sandwich:

  House votes to raise US debt ceiling
[19 Nov 2004]

WASHINGTON (AFP)

The US House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling by 800
billion dollars, helping Washington avoid running short of operating
funds.

By a party-line vote of 208 to 204, lawmakers agreed to increase the
level of the US debt to nearly 8.2 trillion dollars, the third massive
debt limit increase in as many years.

The vote comes one day after the US Senate, also on a party-line vote,
approved a similar measure.

Democrats in Congress have decried ballooning US debt, which they
warned could reach 14.5 trillion dollars in ten years unless drastic
action is taken.

"I think there must be some spiritual immorality for children who are
yet unborn to come into this world with a debt on their shoulders that
their parents have no idea as to how it was accumulated," Charlie
Rangel, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said this
week on the eve of the vote.

"I think it's wrong for ... to have foreigners purchase our debt and
then at the same time we're going to tell them what their
responsibilities would be as relate to enforcing international law,"
Rangel continued.

"It is an economic nightmare as to what would happen if all of the
people who purchase all of our bonds ever got together on anything and
decided the investment just wasn't worth it.

The 800 billion dollar debt level increase is expected to cover
federal spending for one year.

http://servihoo.com/channels/kinews/v3news_details.php?id=60146&CategoryID=47

_________

News and Observer
11/15/04 1:44 PM PT

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said that while the United States
supports a strong dollar, exchange rates should be left to currency
markets, suggesting that Washington would not support any intervention
by central banks.


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A top European Union official today urged the United States to curb
its deficits to help bolster the sagging dollar amid fears a
strengthening euro would stifle Europe's fledgling economic recovery.

"It's not good for anyone to have this kind of movement," EU Economic
and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said heading into an
evening meeting.

Other items on the two-day agenda include the revelation that Greece
joined the euro zone using faulty budget data -- in fact, it didn't
qualify at all -- as well as a counterterrorism push for common rules
on cash movements into the European Union.

The euro hit an all-time high above US$1.30 last week -- a surge
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet has called
"brutal" and "not welcome."
Seeking Stability

Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser echoed his concern but
signaled no action other than additional jawboning.

"I think we must just watch very closely," he told journalists.

"We are all against sharp movements of the euro as was seen in the
last weeks," he said, while adding, "Markets are deciding on exchange
rates and we should respect this."

That stance was echoed by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow at the
start of his European tour Monday in Ireland.

Snow said that while the United States supports a strong dollar,
exchange rates should be left to currency markets, suggesting that
Washington would not support any intervention by central banks.
Need for Action

EU officials said ministers could issue a fresh statement on the
euro's rise against the dollar, which threatens to stifle Europe's
export-driven growth if the climb continues by pricing European
products out of global markets.

The rise comes on top of last week's data showing that growth in the
euro-zone economy slowed sharply in the third quarter -- especially in
heavyweights Germany and France -- and is expected to remain sluggish
in the next six months.

"Policy makers cannot ignore the weakness of euro-area economies
anymore," Morgan Stanley economists Eric Chaney and Anna Grimaldi
wrote today, predicting that ministers would be "more vocal" about the
euro's slide.
Blaming Washington

French Finance Minister Nicholas Sarkozy already has urged Washington
to take action, as has Deputy German Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser.

Currency traders blame the dollar's chronic slide on expanding budget
deficits under U.S. President George W. Bush as well as huge trade
deficits. Despite Washington's official position, analysts say a
weaker dollar would help correct those imbalances by boosting U.S.
exports, thus spurring American economic growth.

Almunia welcomed Snow's reiteration of U.S. support for a strong
dollar, but said he was waiting to see what action is taken in
Washington to back it up.

"If the imbalances of the U.S. economy are not adjusted in the future,
the decision in the market will be as in the past weeks," Almunia said.
Eye on Oil

Also tonight, ministers were looking again at oil prices, which have
subsided from last month's record levels. Action on proposals for how
to respond was put off until December, however, EU diplomats said.

Ministers also were to examine the budget situation in 10 countries
facing excessive red ink, although again no decisions were expected.

Greece was coming in for the most scrutiny after a Eurostat mission
found its deficit has breached the 3 percent of gross domestic product
cap since 1997 -- meaning it never should have been invited to join
the euro club.

But European Commission spokesman Gerassimos Thomas reiterated that
Greece's acceptance into the euro zone was not in doubt.
Cash Limits

"There is no possibility of going back on that," he said. "There's no
legal basis under which that could be questioned."

Tomorrow, finance ministers from all 25 EU countries are to discuss
subjects ranging from the ongoing revision of budget deficit rules to
proposals for reforming EU sales taxes.

The most concrete decision due is a preliminary agreement to set a
common level for declaring cash entering or leaving the EU, which
currently varies by country. France, for example, sets the threshold
at euro 7,000 (US$9,100), while in Germany it's euro 15,000 ($19,500).

A Dutch diplomat, whose country is chairing the meeting, said he
expected the final level to be between euro 10,000 and euro 12,000
($13,000 and $15,600).

The measure, part of a package aimed at combatting terrorist financing
and money laundering, would still require approval by the European
Parliament.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/news/38168.html

________


Conservatives Should Hit The Ceiling   Commentary by Jill S. Farrell
November 17, 2004

Congress is about to raise the debt ceiling.  In October the
Associated Press reported that the government hit the debt ceiling at
$7.3 trillion.



The Treasury Department has to be able to sell treasuries to enable
the Federal Government to meet its financial responsibilities.  This
is the odd and uncomfortable situation in which conservatives find
themselves.



Total debt is derived by adding deficits plus accumulated surpluses.
Deficits require the Treasury to borrow money to raise cash needed to
keep the Government operating.  We borrow money by selling Treasury
securities like T-bills, notes, bonds and savings bonds.



The debt ceiling was enacted in 1917 when the Federal Government
encountered the financial difficulties brought on during World War I.
  Congress enacted the First and Second Liberty Bond Acts, which
established the first debt limit, leaving details to the Secretary of
the Treasury.  It can be argued that Congress delegated its
Constitutional authority to borrow money on the credit of the United
States to the Treasury Department, though debt ceilings have had
little influence over the way in which Congress profligately spends money.



President Bush will start his second term facing a roaring $2.3
trillion minimum in deficits, according to the Congressional Budget
Office.  At least initially tax cuts, changes to the minimum tax rate
and the proposed overhaul of Social Security could add a substantial
burden to our existing debt.  Might these plans eventually open the
throttle on the American economy?  Yes, however, it is difficult to
imagine the economy growing fast enough to keep up with or exceed our
current spending habits.



It is estimated that nearly 40 percent of Federal debt is in foreign
hands, which is just about double the percentage from 10 years ago.
Foreign interests bought up nearly 70 percent of the $373 billion in
Treasury bonds sold in 2003.



There is a co-dependent nature to foreign ownership of our debt.
Foreign countries finance a great deal of our debt and also our trade
deficit.  Since our ability to buy foreign goods depends upon the
dollar maintaining some minimum value, foreign Central Banks are
unlikely to sell off treasuries and demand instant repayment, which
could fatally damage the ailing US dollar.



China's ownership of US debt is nearly a third of the Chinese economy.
  If the existing trend continues, some experts estimate that the total
value of Chinese holdings of US dollars will exceed the total value of
China's GDP in a handful of years.



BusinessWeek magazine reports:



"…investors in the Mideast and Asia have gone on a euro buying binge,"
says Tom Rogers, a currency analyst with Informa Global Markets.
"They're concerned that the policies Bush has promised to enact during
his second term will worsen an already record federal budget deficit.
  Left unchecked, investors fear a soaring deficit will lead to higher
interests rates, lowering the value of U.S. stocks and bonds."



Which raises the question, if the biggest buyers of US debt are losing
faith in our economy, to whom will we sell our debt once the ceiling
is raised?



According to Bloomberg, we began this year with a huge deficit equal
to nearly 30% of our total GDP.  We must attract about $1.8 billion a
day to make ends meet and to maintain the dollar's value.



European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet has described the
euro's climbing value against the dollar as "brutal."  Because other
participants in the world economy are not pleased with the dollar's
path, and though the dollar continues to slip, Secretary of Treasury
John W. Snow told reporters in Dublin on Monday, "We support a strong
dollar -- a strong dollar is in America's interest."



A sickly dollar does have a couple of important advantages.  A weak
dollar makes it possible to export more goods, and the favorable
exchange rate with Canada may draw more Canadian shoppers to
Minnesota.  However, a declining dollar can lead to inflation by
making imported goods more expensive.



The fact remains that record Federal deficits are undermining the
economy and the value of the dollar is dropping.  The burgeoning US
deficit is drawing an increasing number of dollars for interest
payments.  According to the Bureau of Public Debt, we paid $321
billion in interest payments in Fiscal Year 2004.  Those payments are
bound to grow as are other economic problems as the debt ceiling is
raised, or heaven forbid, removed.



It is imperative that Congress promptly begin to exercise spending
restraint.  We need to call upon Members of Congress to do the
responsible, uncomfortable and dangerous job of cutting wasteful and
redundant spending.  There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth
from special interest groups and entrenched bureaucrats to a willing,
and dare we say socialist-leaning, mainstream media.  Congressional
restraint won't be easy to achieve.  A complete overhaul of the
appropriations process is preferable but in lieu of that we can hope
for common sense spending cuts.



While a drop in Federal deficit spending may temporarily reduce US
economic growth by discontinuing overstimulation of the US market, the
Federal Reserve would have the room to keep interest rates lower and
that would keep demand energized.



The President and Congress will need our encouragement if they are to
begin the process needed to turn our country away from the syren song
of "charge" and spend and steer us toward the safe harbor of economic
stability.



Jill S. Farrell is Director of Communications of the Free Congress
Foundation.

http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_10538.shtml

The military draft is coming!!!

Well I think anyone that saw the presidential debates heard and saw Mr
Bush say "there will not be a military draft" (yeah right).  Well if
you read the articles below then I think you would realize Mr Bush
bold face lies left and right.  From lawyars looking into whether the
selective service lists are up dated to the potential of a military
draft of medics.  Say to your brothers, sons, young fathers and young
male friends I will see you on the frontlines of Iran.  Read for yourself:

__________


Government looking at military draft lists

By ALMA WALZER
The Monitor

McALLEN, November 15, 2004 — It's taken one year, seven months and 19
days of combat in Iraq for the Lone Star State to lose 100 of its own.

Texas is the second state, after California, to lose 100 service
members, according to The Associated Press.

With continuing war in Iraq and U.S. armed forces dispersed to so many
other locations around the globe, Americans may be wondering if
compulsory military service could begin again for the first time since
the Vietnam War era.

The Selective Service System (SSS) and the U.S. Department of
Education now are gearing up to compare their computer records, to
make sure all men between the ages of 18 and 25 who are required to
register for a military draft have done so.

The SSS and the education department will begin comparing their lists
on Jan. 1, 2005, according to a memo authored by Jack Martin, acting
Selective Service director.

While similar record checks have been done periodically for the past
10 years, Martin's memo is dated Oct. 28, just a few days before the
Nov. 2 presidential election, a hard-fought campaign in which the
question of whether the nation might need to reinstate a military
draft was raised in debates and on the stump.

It took several more days, until Nov. 4, for the document to reach the
Federal Register, the official daily publication for rules and notices
of federal agencies and organizations.

The memo was also produced after the U.S. House voted 402-2 on Oct. 5,
against House Resolution 163, a bill that would have required all
young people, including women, to serve two years of military service.

Under federal law, a military draft cannot be started without
congressional support.

About 94 percent of all men are properly registered for a draft,
according to Richard Flahavan, associate director of the office of
public and intergovernmental affairs for SSS.

Martin's memo is just a routine thing, Flahavan said.

"Back in 1982 a federal law was passed that basically linked federal
grants, student loans and federal assistance to students with
Selective Service," Flahavan said. "You had to register with Selective
Service with a Social Security number (in order to receive federal
assistance), and as a consequence of the law the Department of
Education came up with an agreement on how to exchange and compare
data to comply with the law.

"It just so happens that the current agreement in effect expires next
month," Flahavan said. "All we did is update the agreement slightly,
but it has no substantive changes. There is nothing new or shocking to
link this to some type of draft right around the corner because its
all been in place for almost 18 years."

Flahavan said the written agreements between SSS and the Department of
Education normally run for about four or five years and suggested that
a reporter search the 1999 or 2000 records of the Federal Register for
the most agreement.

A search of the Federal Register by The Monitor found four such
agreements between the two agencies, with effective dates as follows:
Jan. 1, 1995; July 1, 1997; Jan. 1, 2000; and July 1, 2002.

All four agreements lasted for 18 months, during which time the SSS
and the Department of Education could complete their comparisons.

The most recent agreement, which began July 1, 2002, actually expired
Jan. 1, 2004, according to federal records located by The Monitor.

"This has nothing to with current events," Flahavan said. "This is
just the periodic renewal of previous agreements — this one is 18
months but normally it runs four years and that's why we're doing it
now. I'm not quite sure why it's 18 months versus the normal number of
years."

Flahavan said the agency was required to place the agreement in the
Federal Register.

"That's fine and we did," Flahavan said. "We believe the public
wouldn't stand for a draft that isn't fair and equitable.

"And the only way to be fair and equitable is if everyone who should
register is registered, because that's the pool from which the people
who would be drafted would be selected from. So you want everyone who
should be in the pot in the pot," Flahavan said.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, who officially begins representing
western Hidalgo County residents in January, said Congress has voted
on record against a draft.

"It was a near unanimous vote in the House," Doggett said. "When
things are filed in the Federal Register, there will be standards, and
they are a reminder that if we cannot get more international
participation that the risk of a draft remains out there.

"And I think we do need people to remain watchful of this possibility."

Doggett said one type of "draft" was already being used by the military.

"I'm concerned that a very real form of the draft is there now for
those already in the service," Doggett said. "People are being forced
to stay in beyond their commitment, and that's an indication of being
overextended.

"I want us to pursue policies that don't overextend us and involve
more international participation, so that Americans don't have to do
all the dying and endure all the pain for these international
activities," Doggett said.

Flahavan said the computer records check would help Selective Service
with its compliance rates.

"From 1999 to 2000, it was dropping about a percent a year," Flahavan
said. "It's now inching back up about a percent a year. Last year it
was 93 percent.

"At the end of 2004 we anticipate about a 94 percent compliance rate,"
Flahavan said. "We're pleased we've got it back on the rise and that's
where we want to keep it — that's our goal."

Draft Gear Up?
Who Has To Register?
All male U.S. citizens and male aliens living in the U.S. between the
ages of 18 and 25
Dual nationals of the U.S. and another country, regardless of where
they live
Young men who are in prison or mental institutions do not have to
regsiter while they are committed, but must do so if they are released
and not reached age 26
Disabled men who live at home and can move about indiependently.
Myths
Contrary to popular belief, only sons and the last son to carry a
family name must register and they can be drafted.
What Happens In A Draft
Congress would likely approve a military draft in a time of crisis, in
which the mission requires more troops than are in the volunteer military.
Selective Service procedures would treat married men or those with
children the same as single men.
The first men to be called up will be those whose 20th birthday falls
during that year, followed by those age 21, 22, 23,24 and 25.
The last men to be called are 18 and 19 years of age.
Historical Facts
The last man to be drafted was in June 1973.
Number of Drafted for WWI : 2.8 million
Number of Drafted for WWII: 10 million
Number of Drafted for the Korean War: 1.5 million
Number of Drafted for the Vietnam War: 1.8 million
Source: Selective Service System

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=62232_0_10_0_C

__________

For driver's license, La boys preregister for Selective Service
11/13/2004, 2:19 p.m. CT
The Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — When Larry Chevalier took his son to get his
first driver's license, he was floored to discover that to get it, the
boy had to preregister for a nonexistent military draft.

"I just can't believe it," said Chevalier, whose 16-year-old son,
Nathan, did fill out the form to register with the Selective Service
so he could get his license.

"They wouldn't let him get it otherwise," Chevalier said Saturday.

Even a 15-year-old boy who wants a learner's permit in Louisiana must
provide information to be forwarded, when he turns 18, to the
Selective Service System, which would run a military draft if one is
set up again.

The same goes for any 16- 17- or 18-year-old who wants his — the law
applies only to males — first driver's license or state ID card.

"They can't even be a conscientious objector to signing up," said
Chevalier, of Glenmora.

The state forwards the information to a federal center which holds it
until the boy's 18th birthday, when he is old enough to enter military
service. It is used to automatically register him with Selective Service.

Nobody much noticed the law when the Legislature passed it in 2003.
What got people's attention that year was a law to suspend the
licenses of some students expelled or suspended from high school.

Rudy Sanchez, general counsel for the federal Selective Service
System, was also floored to learn that 15-year-olds were being asked
to preregister. "Louisiana shouldn't be registering 15-year-olds. We
don't even register 16-year-olds," he said last week.

Federal law only provides for "early submission" of information by a
young man who is at least 17 years and three months old, he noted.
When he turns 18, it is forwarded to the proper database.

The law requires only that young men register within 30 days before or
after their 18th birthdays.

Other states have passed laws requiring young men to register with
Selective Service when they get a driver's license, but none requires
it of 15-year-olds, he said.

Everett Bonner, state director of Selective Service, said information
collected by the Office of Motor Vehicles is forwarded to a federal
data management center in Chicago.

"They do accept it. I can promise you. They do not process it until
the young man turns 18," he said.

He said registering young men when they get their drivers' licenses is
a convenience and a way to help those who don't know they must
register. Anyone failing to register is "considered a felon without
conviction," he said, and may lose opportunities and benefits.

Chevalier questioned how the state can force a minor child to "sign on
the dotted line" without his parents' consent.

Bonner said parents must sign for a minor to get a driver's license
and that should suffice for draft registration as well.

"What I don't like is somebody having all this information about kids
and somebody sitting up there in some private meeting discussing how
many young people they have available for the draft in two years,"
Chevalier said.

There is no national military draft, and the major presidential
candidates all said repeatedly that they don't plan to reinstate one.

Chevalier said he himself was "too young for Vietnam and too old for
anything afterward," but his family has a tradition of military
service. "Somebody in my family has served in every war since the
Revolutionary War," he said.

It doesn't bother him that his son would have to sign up with
Selective Service when he turns 18. "But to be signing up kids at 15
and 16 years old, I do have a problem with that," he said. "All this
is to where the government can get a closer eye on the kids. I really
believe it's going against their civil liberties."

The bill's sponsor was Hunt Downer, an assistant adjutant general in
the National Guard and former House speaker whom Gov. Kathleen Blanco
appointed in August to head the new Department of Veterans Affairs.

Young men at a recent YMCA-sponsored driver's education course
shrugged when they learned of the requirement.

"I don't care," said Mark Fontenot, a 16-year-old student at Apostolic
Christian Academy.

Pineville High School student Josh Stokes, 15, said, "I think it's good.'

Neither would elaborate.

"I think it's all right. I can't do anything about it anyway," said
Stephen White, 16 and a student at Alexandria Senior High School.

Chevalier said he plans to do something, or at least try. He plans to
submit a report to the American Civil Liberties Union, and is putting
together information packets to send to all state legislators.

"They said it was to make it easier on an 18-year-old. How can they
say it makes it easier on an 18-year-old when it's putting more
pressure on a 15-year-old?" he said.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1100377441110120\
.xml&storylist=louisiana

__________

Draft remains in the mind of the nation
By Alexander Plummer
Published: Friday, November 19, 2004


Two weeks removed from another hotly contested presidential election,
all eyes are now focused on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as President
George W. Bush begins to shape his political agenda for his upcoming
second term. Questions abound on what policies the president will
pursue, and what actions he will take now that the country has given
the former Texas governor a slight but clear mandate.

Among the many issues that have been bandied about as possible items
on Bush's second term agenda, the reinstatement of a draft has become
more than just a debate among Americans across the county. With U.S.
troops facing increasingly hostile resistance in Iraq, and the
everyday strain being put on our human resources overseas, a draft
could be in our near future.

In the final months before the election, the issue of a draft received
little play from the news media, but the issue was still a topic for
both George Bush and John Kerry.

"Sen. Kerry did raise the issue," former Kerry advisor and close
confidant to the Massachusetts senator Setti Warren said. " He
stressed the fact that he thought there was a back door draft going on."

Warren believes that the reason the draft has become an issue in the
first place has to do with the fact that "our reservists are having to
come back out to fight, and the sheer numbers and strain on our
military could lead to a draft."

"Sen. Kerry, on many occasions during the campaign, pounded home his
belief that our troops were not being equipped to the appropriate
level of fighting in Iraq," Warren stated. She also recalled that the
issue of a draft was " high on the list of the Kerry agenda," during
the campaign.

On the other side of the spectrum, President Bush on the campaign
trail was quoted as saying that "our all-volunteer army will remain an
all-volunteer army." Bush went on to assure the American people that
"we will not have a draft, and the only person talking about the draft
is my opponent. The only politicians that supported a draft are
Democrats, and the best way to avoid a draft is to vote for me."

http://www.tnhonline.com/news/2004/11/19/News/Draft.Remains.In.The.Mind.Of.The.N\
ation-811984.shtml

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_______-

The Coming Draft - Skills & Combat

This is a Special Military Draft Alert.

In May, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a
document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. It was
revealed that the SSS is currently "designing procedures" for the
implementation of a "Skills Draft" and had held a top-level meeting on
it with Deputy Undersecretaries at the Defense Department. This draft
would change the essential mission of the Selective Service and
require "virtually every young American," male and female ages 18–34,
to register for the Skills Draft and list all the occupations they are
proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire
government. If enacted, the Skills Draft proposed in this FOI-
recovered document would change America as we know it.

The Pentagon is suffering from immediate labor shortages. Recently,
the inactive Ready Reserve had to be called up for the first time
since the Gulf War to fill 5,600 job shortages in the Armed Forces.
DoD said in the recent IRR callup "20% of the call-ups are truck
drivers, 12% are supply specialists who can use a computer to track
supplies, 10% are Humvee mechanics, 7% are administrative specialists
and 6% are combat engineers" (USA Today, August 8, 2004).

Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a
Skills Draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in
its July 13 issue that Karl Rove had polled GOP members of Congress in
September 2002 to see if they would support the President if he
requests reinstatement. The Republicans said they would vote for the
draft. They would likely support the new legislation needed to create
the Skills Draft. While Bush and the Republicans are of course keeping
the return of the draft and the new skills draft as quiet as possible,
many anti-draft organizations have recently begun warning of a "Coming
New Draft. "

The Issue Paper document was revealed through the Freedom of
Information Act by Seattle Post Intelligencer reporter Eric Rosenberg,
who wrote a partial explanation of it that was printed May 1, 2004.

Rosenberg's article was edited, however, and some key points about
this document were omitted in the published article. What follows is a
full explanation of the document.

This document is real, having been acknowledged by the DoD and the SSS
when they said no action is being taken on it at the present time.
However, given the current manpower shortages for certain skills and
nurses, if Bush gets back in, expect all the options outlined in the
Issue Paper to be implemented by the end of December of this year, and
at the least a non-combat skills and medical draft to start next year,
if not the male combat draft, ages 18 –25.

Despite Rumsfeld saying the draft is not needed, this is the same
neo-con administration that has repeatedly lied to and misled the
American people. Draft-age youth and their families are left looking
at a "long, hard slog" in Iraq (Rumsfeld secret memo), the neo-con
plans to invade still more nations, and then having to take Rumsfeld
and Cheney's word not to worry about the draft, that they "are not
considering it at this time."

Although official word is that this secret list of options is not
being implemented—the Issue Paper options have NOT been rejected and
the 6-page proposal is rather sitting in the Pentagon, waiting. In
addition, the SSS itself has said that it is "designing procedures"
(Seattle PI, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning
designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep
track of "virtually every young American" and their skills. Acting
Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the Skills Draft is the "top
priority" of the Selective Service for 2004.

From the FOI document, we now know that on February 11, 2003, Charles
Abell, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness, and William Carr, Deputy Undersecretary for Military
Personnel Policy, met with Lewis Brodsky, the Acting Director of the
Selective Service and some other officials. This is the highest-level
meeting you could have about the Selective Service, outside of
Rumsfeld and his inner circle. They were there to discuss the urgent
"issue paper" now revealed, which starts: "With known shortages of
military personnel with certain critical skills, and with the need for
the nation to be capable of responding to domestic emergencies as a
part of Homeland Security Planning, changes should be made in the
Selective Service System's registration program and primary mission."

Although it would require changes in current draft law, the
far-reaching proposal shows how far the Republicans are going to plan
and prepare for a huge expansion of the draft. The Issue Paper options
include: Change the very mission of the SSS to become a massive
conscription service in the War on Terror for the entire government.
Conscript men and women in a critical skills non-combat draft up to
age 34 with no deferments of any kind, except "essential community
service" (like the Medical Draft). Allow a non-combat draft for
shortages in critical skills, without calling a combat draft. Fill
labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD but the whole
government, especially high-paying professionals like computer
networking specialist or linguist. Create a massive database of
"virtually every young American" ages 18 to 34. This database would be
used to draft in war and to recruit in peacetime. State and even local
governments would be given access to the names for recruitment and
help in emergencies. Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in
which every young person would be forced to send in a
"self-declaration" of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long
list of occupations like the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The
self-declaration is similar to IRS compliance and the filling out and
signing of your tax forms. All young people would be required to keep
the government updated if they acquired a new skill. SSS Compliance
forms will be available at every Post Office. The usual penalties of
imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all
non-registrants. A draft or recruitment could be for any one of the
skills you self- declare on the compliance form, not your current or
primary skill. This greatly increases your chance of being drafted if
you are 18–34. Bring the Medical Draft (HCPDS) up to speed and fully
test it through readiness exercises. Reduce induction time from being
able to deliver all inductees in 193 days down to just 90 days for
skills inductees.

This secret paper urges the mission be changed "promptly," meaning
they really need it, it would draft for the Pentagon as well as the
enormous Homeland Security branches as well as other government
agencies, even state and local!

For obvious political reasons, the decision was made by Bush, Cheney
and Rove to sit on this 6-page proposal until after the election in
November. Yet the SSS was told to go ahead and begin "designing
procedures" for the Skills Draft in 2004 and make it their "top
priority." It can be expected that if Bush gets back in, and the DoD
and SSS are still asking for the Skills Draft, the "Next Steps" part
of the document will be put into action and the most expansive option
to change the SSS mission will be rapidly legislated.

In the secret planning meeting document, the next steps strongly
recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky were:

1. "Promptly" redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to
age 34 for skills, and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the
Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter
millions of names of those registering their critical skills.

2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the
Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA,
NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service,
Public Health Service and other federal, state and local government
agencies.

3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with
recommendation on this skills draft for the entire DHS and the rest of
the government.

4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future
of the SSS.

5. Be prepared to market the skills draft, raising the non-combat age
to 34 and the drafting of women to the Armed Services and
Appropriations Committee.

This proposed expansion of the draft, forcing all people under 35 to
register with the SSS, man or woman, is primarily proposed, according
to the document, because the cost of providing contract professionals,
like computer network specialists, would be "prohibitive." In this
way, the proposed Skills Draft would help preserve Bush's massive tax
cuts for the wealthy by lowering the massive budget deficits.

That's the new Skills Draft and the secret document behind it. But
what about the Combat Draft?

Selective Service has been registering young men for over twenty years
and at any moment the President can go to Congress and ask them to
reauthorize conscription for the male combat draft for ages 18–25. It
doesn't take much to imagine a re-elected Bush going to Congress and
saying "We cannot cut and run from Iraq or the War on Terror. I need
you to reauthorize conscription."

And they would not have to pass a whole new draft law to do it. All
that is needed is a "trigger resolution," which could be passed in the
dead of night—and bingo! No debate, no regular bill, just a short
resolution passed quickly and the draft for men 18 to 25 is back.

That is why the Democratic draft resolution being offered by Rangel
and Hollings is totally irrelevant. These are known protest bills and
actually propose drafting women for the combat draft, just to make
sure they will never see the light of day. Rangel and Hollings offered
them to raise the issue and confront Bush. Hollings even said he
wouldn't vote for his own bill!

They are not needed—and the press and the Republicans will bring them
up as red herrings to distract everyone from what is really going on:
the Republicans, and the SSS are quietly, behind the scenes, oiling up
the draft machinery—getting ready to reinstate for the Spring of 2005.
Taken singly, each of the clues indicating the return and expansion of
the draft might seem insignificant but when you add them all up with
what the Selective Service is doing to gear up the combat draft, a
clear pattern emerges, leading to the inescapable conclusion that a
Bush re-election will see not only a Skills Draft, but a return of the
Combat Draft as well.

What is the proof? The government's own document, the SSS Performance
Plan for Fiscal Year 2004.

The Selective Service System, or the SSS, has for decades operated at
a low level of readiness. Readiness Exercises are conducted on a
multi-year cycle but historically these have been little more than
getting draft board volunteers together and going over the procedures
of what would happen under reinstatement and training new members
every summer. And the draft boards themselves have become 80% vacant
over the decades.

In the current 5-year cycle of exercises, however, the SSS is clearly
ramping up the draft machinery to an unprecedented level.

"Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56
State Headquarters, 442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are
operational within 75 days of an authorized return to conscription."

Tie that to this objective:

An annual report providing the results of the implementation of these
performance measures will be submitted by March 31, 2005.

75 days from March 31, 2005 is about June 15, 2005. According to the
2004 plan, the draft boards will be "operational" then, meaning that
they will be set up in 1,980 local offices around the country. If Bush
asks for reinstatement on April 1, Congress could pass it that night
and the first batch of more than one million 20 year-olds would face
the national lottery as soon as that date, June 15, 2005.

Here is how the $28 million is being spent according to the official
document. Although the Senate rejected the funding request to bump up
the SSS budget to $28 million, the SSS says in one paragraph of the
Performance Plan that budgets will be "adjusted" to cover the
additional cost for 2004:

Strategic Goal 1: Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the
Manpower Delivery Systems (Projected allocation for FY 2004: $7,942,000)

Strategic Goal 2: Improve overall Registration Compliance and Service
to the Public (Projected allocation FY 2004: $8,769,000)

Strategic Goal 3: Enhance external and internal customer service
(Projected allocation for FY 2004: $10 ,624,000)

Strategic Goal 4: Enhance the system which guarantees that each
conscientious objector is properly classified, placed, and monitored.
(Projected allocation for FY 2004: $955,000)

In analyzing each of the 2004 goals in detail it is obvious that there
are hidden "activation bombshells" in this so-called Performance Plan.
Goal number 1 in particular brings the combat induction process up to
95% operational readiness, going so far as to actually hold a mock
lottery drawing this year and to issue sample orders to report for the
famous medical exam. The document does not reveal the day in 2004 the
mock lottery is to be held.

In addition, the Medical Draft, or Health Care Personnel Delivery
System (HCPDS in the document), is for the first time brought up to
full readiness by next year. This draft would take men and women up to
age 44 if they are doctors, nurses or one of 60-some medical
specialties. No medical deferments allowed. Previous readiness
exercises merely went over what would happen with HCPDS and updated
the guide. The 2004 plan actually develops a readiness exercise for
the Medical Draft that would be conducted next year. Plus HCPDS must
be ready to conscript by June, being part of the system.

Goal number four is particularly ominous:

Strategic Objective 4.1: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 48
Alternative Service Offices and 48 Civilian Review Boards are
operational within 96 days after notification of a return to induction.

Strategic Objective 4.2: Develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
for the Alternative Service Employer Network to specifically identify
organizations and associations who can, by law, participate in the
Alternative Service Program. This network will provide jobs for ASWs
at the local level. Prior to activation, SSS will develop a draft MOU
for use when obtaining agreements with qualified employers at the
local and national level.

For 31 years, the Conscientious Objector system, called the
Alternative Service, has lain dormant. The 2004 plan also calls for
this to be brought up to speed and to be ready to decide cases and
place COs in the Alternative Service by July 6, 2005 (96 days after
March 31, 2005). The SSS is even going so far as to draw up the SOPs,
the Standard Operating Procedures which identify local employers
eligible to receive cheap AS workers and to also draw up the actual
MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding the employer must sign to get
their CO workers and allow their mandatory attendance to be monitored.
This is the last obstacle to be hurdled before the draft could
actually be ready for quick activation under the law.

In sharp contrast to all this preparation for a Spring 2005 draft by
Bush, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has proposed a
military plan that rejects any draft, by adding 20,000 active duty
combat soldiers and 20,000 active "reconstruction specialists." At a
Wisconsin high school, Kerry pledged in June, 2004, that the draft
would be "absolutely unnecessary." When asked in April by 130 college
editors in a conference call as to whether he would support a draft,
John Kerry said unequivocally: "No. No draft" and he has criticized
the use of the Guard and Reserve and now the Individual Ready Reserve
as a "back-door draft."

Kerry plans to spend an additional $7 billion to strengthen the
Volunteer Army in what is essentially a "No-Draft Plan," Moreover,
Kerry is strongly opposed to the neo-con plan revealed in Wes Clark's
book, in which Clark was told by a senior Pentagon official that
invasions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan and Somalia are still to come
over the next three years.




___________

Secret report details plan to draft medics

By Robert Pear The New York Times

Wednesday, October 20, 2004


WASHINGTONThe Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the
agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance
and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key
and discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
."A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no
draft."
.Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
."The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could
show that they were providing essential health care services to
civilians in their communities.
.But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."

WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
WASHINGTON The Selective Service has been updating its contingency
plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in
case of a national emergency that overwhelmed the military's medical
corps.
.
In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency
described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and
how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care
professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
.
On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should
establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals,
schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural
health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade
publications.
.
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and
discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical
community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm
the public.
.
In this election year, the report said, "very few ideas or activities
are viewed without some degree of cynicism."
.
President George W. Bush has flatly declared that there will be no
draft, but Senator John Kerry has suggested that this is a possibility
if Bush is re-elected.
.
Richard Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, said
Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health
care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless
Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to
carry it out."
.
The Selective Service does not decide whether a draft will occur. It
would carry out the mechanics only if the president and Congress
authorized a draft.
.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said Monday: "It is
the policy of this administration to oppose a military draft for any
purpose whatsoever.
.
"A return to the draft is unthinkable," he said. "There will be no draft."
.
Di Rita said the armed forces could offer bonus pay and other
incentives to attract and retain medical specialists.
.
In 1987, Congress enacted a law requiring the Selective Service to
develop a plan for "registration and classification" of health care
professionals essential to the armed forces.
.
Under the plan, Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female
health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with
the Selective Service.
.
From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of
health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.
.
"The Selective Service System plans on delivering about 36,000 health
care specialists to the Defense Department if and when a special
skills draft were activated," Flahavan said.
.
The contractor hired by Selective Service, Widmeyer Communications,
said that local government operations would be affected by a call-up
of emergency medical technicians, so it advised the Selective Service
to contact groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties.
.
Doctors and nurses would be eligible for deferments if they could show
that they were providing essential health care services to civilians
in their communities.
.
But the contractor said: "There is no getting around the fact that a
medical draft would disrupt lives. Many familial, business and
community responsibilities will be impacted."
.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/19/news/draft.html


_


Fear of military draft prompts West Boynton grandmother to take action

By Rhonda J. Miller
Staff Writer
Posted November 19 2004

Bea Turk says she gets upset when she hears about young people
fighting, losing limbs or dying in the war in Iraq. They remind her of
her grandson, Brett Ackerman, 18, a University of Florida freshman.

When Turk read a newspaper article about a proposed bill in Congress
to start a mandatory military draft for 18- to 26-year-olds and not
allow college deferments, she became an activist.









By the next day, she and neighbor Randy Rubin had petitions against
the legislation. Turk carried them to the hairdresser, her mah-jongg
group and her husband Mel's physical therapy appointments.

They were passed around at a "Meet the Candidates" session in her
Valencia Lakes community west of Boynton Beach.

She got 920 signatures in a few weeks and sent 30 packets of 70 pages
to government leaders in Florida and Washington at the end of
September. The mailing list included President Bush and presidential
candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Then the draft issue died in Congress.

On Oct. 5, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 402-2 against the
bill, HR-163. The next day, Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., who had
introduced the Senate version, S-89, in January 2003, withdrew his
support. He issued a statement saying the country still needs more
troops, but " . . . we were misled in Iraq and you don't draft young
Americans for a mistake, particularly when they can't win. Under these
circumstances, I would vote against my own bill."

The bill didn't come to a vote in the Senate. "I'd say the bill is
dead if the sponsor withdrew his support and there's no co-sponsor,"
said Hollings' spokeswoman Eileen Zeldin.

But Turk is not letting go that easily. She is convinced that manpower
for the Iraq war has to come from somewhere and thinks there's a
possibility that the issue might come up again.

The fact that the issue was mentioned in one of the presidential
debates shows there is still cause for concern, she said. "I think
it's just been put on the back burner."

So she is working on a follow-up letter to the 30 leaders who got the
packets, asking them to keep an eye on the issue.

Turk's mission started over coffee one morning when she read a
newspaper opinion piece by Bobbie Bender about the possibility of the
draft being reinstated. It was eliminated in 1973 after years of
protests during the Vietnam War, but the Selective Service System
still requires males to register shortly before their 18th birthday.

Bender, 48, is a freelance writer who lives west of Boynton Beach. He
researched on the proposed legislation, the Universal National Service
Act of 2003.

"As soon as they mention the draft and women, I get very nervous. The
only child I have is my daughter, and we're very close. I don't want
her in another Vietnam," Bender said.

His daughter, Catherine, 17, is a student at Forest Hill High School
in West Palm Beach.

Bender had a high draft lottery number that wasn't called during the
Vietnam War, as well as a college deferment. He said he doesn't hear
straight answers when politicians mention the draft.

Turk's grandson said he doesn't think the issue is clear, either.

"If they institute the draft, I think it would backfire," said
Ackerman, a history major who plans to study law or journalism in
graduate school. "Instead of getting volunteers, they'd force people
to go into this war."

Ackerman's grandfather, Mel Turk, said he isn't necessarily against
the draft. A registered Republican, he served in the Navy during World
War II. His wife of 53 years is a Democrat, and they say the issue
doesn't divide them.

"The draft issue is important to me, and I'm going to follow through,"
Bea Turk said. "It's not political."

Rhonda J. Miller can be reached at rjmiller@... or
561-243-6605.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-bc19draftnov19,0,4824740.st\
ory?coll=sfla-news-palm

______