Hannah's Blog

Random Searches Redux

To follow up an August 14th post, here's information compiled by the Mad Cow Morning News:

From the Congressional Testimony of Steve Emerson on March 19, 1996:

"Held in the Washington area from June 19 to 21, 1991, the conference included? leaders representing nearly every radical fundamentalist group in the world attended, making the gathering the all-time All-Star terrorist conference in U.S. history? those present also decided to support one another in their respective Islamic confrontations with their non-Islamic hosts."

"In attendance at this spectacular meeting was Hamas chieftain Musa Abu Marzuk, Islamic Jihad leaders Ramadan Abdullah [Shallah] and Sami Al-Arian (the latter is still ensconced as a professor at the University of South Florida while the former now runs Islamic Jihad from Damascus), Al-Amoudi, now head of the American Muslim Council and a chief spokesperson for imprisoned Hamas chief Marzuk."

From the Congressional Testimony of Richard Clarke, October 22, 2003:

"From his home and office in Tampa Florida, Sami al-Arian, the indicted North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, allegedly coordinated the movement of fund from the government of Iran to suicide bombers in West Bank and Gaza? In Tampa, Florida, Sami al-Arian established the Islamic Academy of Florida. The February 2003 indictment against al-Arian says the school was used as a base of support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad"?

From University Wire - USF Oracle June 13, 2002:

"[Former Justice Department prosecutor John] Loftus?s accusations against Al-Arian go even further than links with Jihad. Loftus said he believes Al-Arian had a link to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Loftus said Al-Arian was involved with a group called Baraka that he alleges laundered money to support the suicide pilots as they trained at Florida airports."

Loftus said evidence suggests Al-Arian may have personally played a part in the execution of the attacks. "It is a matter of record that an organization known as the Baraka group laundered the money to the skyjackers of Sept. 11. Sami Al-Arian incorporated Baraka in the state of Florida, which was dissolved on Sept. 28, 2001."

"The rumpled, balding figure was spotted darting into the offices of Republican power broker Grover Norquist last July... Sami Al-Arian emerged more than two hours later... Al-Arian was visiting the Islamic Institute, a Muslim outreach group cofounded by Norquist and housed within his office suite."

"In June 2001, Al-Arian was among members of the American Muslim Council invited to the White House complex for abriefing by Bush political adviser Karl Rove. The next month, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom - a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian - gave Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases, a position Bush had adopted in the 2000 campaign."

From The Washington Post February 22, 2003:

"Al-Arian's appearance at the White House came? as part of the administration's outreach to Muslims, officials said... The group that included Al-Arian was scheduled to be briefed by Vice President Cheney, but Cheney canceled. That morning, the Jerusalem Post had run a front-page article headlined, "Cheney to host pro-terrorist Muslim group."

"Rove, according to Al-Arian and other attendees, used the meeting to talk of White House efforts to embrace the Muslim community. Al-Arian said he sat in the front row.

"The [al-Arian] family said that Bush gave their lanky son, Abdullah, the nickname "Big Dude."'?

"Six days after Al-Arian's meeting with Rove, a delegation of Muslim community activists stormed out of the White House complex after the Secret Service ejected Al-Arian's son, an intern for then-Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.). The Secret Service sent the son an apology on Aug. 13, 2001"...

"Bush signed an Aug. 2, 2001, letter to Al-Arian's wife, thanking her for a book she sent him and expressing "regret" about how her son was treated. "I have been assured that everything possible is being done to ensure that nothing like this happens again," Bush wrote."

From MSNBC
October 23, 2003:

"John Loftus, ex-DOJ official: About a year-and-a-half ago, people in the intelligence community came and said-guys like Alamoudi and Sami al-Arian and other terrorists weren?t being touched because they?d been ordered not to investigate the cases, not to prosecute them."

"But, who was it that fixed the cases?... the answer is coming out in a very strange place. What Alamoudi and al-Arian have in common is a guy named Grover Norquist? He is the guy that was hired by Alamoudi to head up the Islamic institute and he?s the registered agent for Alamoudi, personally, and for the Islamic Institute. Grover Norquist?s best friend is Karl Rove, the White House chief of staff, and apparently Norquist was able to fix things."...

"Think of the Muslim chaplain?s program that he set up as a spy service for al-Qaeda."

From The National Review, June 11, 2004:

"Alamoudi was a frequent visitor to the Clinton White House. The State Department paid him to represent the United States on six overseas speaking tours between 1997 and 2001. (His topic: religious tolerance.) The Clinton-era Pentagon selected Alamoudi to nominate the armed forces' first Muslim chaplains."

From The Boston Globe, February 27, 2003:

"Alamoudi attended the Rove briefing in the White House in [June] 2001; a year earlier, he was one of several Muslims invited to meet with candidate Bush in Austin, Texas..."

Saudi/Enron/Election connection

Special Report as published by Online Journal

Special Report

Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

November 25, 2004?According to informed sources in Washington and Houston, the Bush campaign spent some $29 million to pay polling place operatives around the country to rig the election for Bush. The operatives were posing as Homeland Security and FBI agents but were actually technicians familiar with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad, Unilect, and Danaher Controls voting machines. These technicians reportedly hacked the systems to skew the results in favor of Bush.

The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program.

There have been media reports from around the country concerning the locking down of precincts while votes were being tallied. In one unprecedented action in Warren County, Ohio, election officials locked down the facility where votes were being counted. The officials said this was in response to a Level 10 high-threat terrorist warning being issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for Warren County. George Bush won 72 percent of the vote in Warren County, much larger than his percentage of victory statewide.

The money to rig the election in favor of Bush reportedly came from an entity called Five Star Trust, largely based in Houston but a worldwide entity that is directly tied to the Saudi Royal Family. Five Star Trust was termed "a well-protected vehicle" that has been used to support both Bush and Osama bin Laden in the US and around the world.

Other money used to fund the election rigging was from siphoned Enron money stored away in accounts in the Cook Islands, which was once the base of one of the more questionable and Saudi-linked BCCI subsidiaries. Cook Islands banks also handled some of the weapons smuggling financing of the Iran-Contra scandal. A former Justice Department attorney who helped prosecute the BCCI case said the use of the Cook Islands by the Bush reelection team indicates they wanted the bank arrangements to be a "quick folding tent" operation that would cease to exist when the election was over. He said the Cook Islands was notorious for not requiring any documentation for such operations.

In fact, the Cook Islands has been a favorite location for various covert intelligence activities. This most recent use of the islands is a continuation of a scandal discovered in New Zealand in the early '90s called the "Winebox Affair." In 1992, a computer dealer named Paul White bought some secondhand computers and floppy disks from the Citibank office in Auckland, New Zealand, that had earlier sold them to a scrap dealer.

White later discovered the floppies (and 10 paper files) detailed a scheme to use the European Pacific Bank in the Cook Islands to bilk foreign governments and banks for a phony 15 percent tax bill assessed on various transactions by the Cook Islands government (at the time run by Tom Davis, a former US Army and NASA research scientist who was allegedly on the payroll of the CIA). European Pacific reaped millions of illegal dollars from the New Zealand Treasury and a number of Japanese banks, including Mitsubishi Bank. Paul White later died in a suspicious auto accident.

As detailed in the book "The Paradise Conspiracy" by New Zealand journalist Ian Wishart, the Cook Islands scheme also involved several CIA operatives, including Lawrence John Fahey, who had an interest in InterAir of Nevada, one of the airlines used by Ollie North to funnel arms to Iran. It also involved William Raupe, a CIA officer stationed under cover as a USAID employee at the US embassy in Suva. Raupe had once worked for Air America in South East Asia. Another CIA agent active in the Cooks was Robert C. Allen, known to New Zealand authorities as a US agent who was formerly with the CIA proprietary firm Bishop, Baldwin, Dillingham, Wong Ltd. In addition, along with the late former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Gerald Parsky was also involved in the European Pacific Bank's Cook Islands operations. Parsky is George W. Bush's chief fundraiser and adviser in California (he led Bush's 2000 California campaign) and supported Simon's son's unsuccessful bid for the governorship of California against Gray Davis and then again in the recall of Davis. Enron was involved early on with Arnold Schwarzenegger at a meeting in 2001 at the Beverly Hills Hotel at the same time Enron was bilking California utility customers with increases as high as 1000 percent This scheme eventually led to Davis's recall and his replacement by Schwarzenegger.

The Cook Islands-Citibank-European Pacific fraud appeared to have been cooked up to take the place of other "outed" CIA banking activities, including Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. European Pacific also involved assets of BCCI, in particular the Commercial Bank of Commerce in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, a BCCI subsidiary. MIchael Hand, a former Green Beret who reportedly served with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Laos (and whose partner, Frank Nugan, was found shot to death in 1980 in Australia) later turned up associated with Euromac (European Manufacturing Center) Ltd., a British company that tried to sell nuclear trigger krytrons to Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War. Nugan Hand's chief counsel, William Colby, a former CIA Director, was found floating in the Chesapeake in 1996.

The sale of nuclear material to Iraq was funded through Saudi operations in Houston, including those associated with George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, James R. Bath, and Saudis Abdullah Taha Baksh, and Kamal Adham, as well as Lebanese businessman Ghaith Pharaon (who was also involved in the collapse of Miami's CenTrust S&L, a bank that had ties to Jeb Bush). This gang, along with Salem Bin Laden, the older brother of Osama, funneled over $1 million into failed Bush ventures, including Arbusto, Spectrum 7, and Harken Energy. Some of the Saudi money also financed Enron Oil and Gas Resources (later EOG Resources) in the Belspec Fusselman Field in Midland, Texas, a deal in which George W. Bush had a financial stake. In fact, Saudi planes in the 1980s landed in Houston with mountains of cash used to buy nuclear material for Saddam to possibly use against the Iranians. The money was laundered through Houston's Main Bank, a bank close to the Bush family. Skyway Aircraft of Houston, owned by Bath, was invested in by Abu Dhabi's ruler (the main owner of BCCI) and whose parent company in the Cayman Islands was used by Ollie North to collect foreign money for his Iran-contra enterprise.

Another person involved in the Cook Islands bank defrauding scheme was a Lebanese-American named Samir Bashout (alias Dr. Khalaf B. Bashout) who set up Midland International Bank and Trust Ltd in the Cook Islands with no real capital. Bashout's Midland had nothing to do with Midland Bank of the UK but may have been named for Midland, Texas, of George W. Bush fame. Bashout was later convicted of beating his wife in Rancho Park, Calif., amid a nasty divorce. She claimed he secreted away much of his money. Bashout's Metro Bank (Philippines) account in Los Angeles was found to contain only $10,000, not the $10 million he claimed to Cook Islands' authorities. US Treasury agent John Shockey alerted the Cook Islands internal auditor to Bashout's repeated attempts to bounce a check for $5 million. In January 2002, Hamilton Bank failed after it lost $500 million due to loan scandals and money laundering charges. The recipient of a $5.5 million loan was Metro Bank International, headquartered in Vanuatu, an offshore banking location similar to the Cook Islands. Metro Bank was thought to contain some of the billions of dollars laundered by the CIA and the Cook Islands International Trust Corp. on behalf of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos's CIA intermediaries in the Cooks were Eldon William Morris, James Centers, and Dante Dominigo Agdeppa. Morris was under investigation by the Queensland Special Branch and the FBI in Hawaii and California.

Bashout was also involved in the defunct World Arabic Television News (WATN), an Arabic television network that attracted the attention of the Houston-based Arab Times newspaper as not delivering on its promises and defrauding investors.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative reporter. He was also the Operations Officer at Naval Facility Coos Head, Oregon from 1980 to 1982 and assisted the FBI and NIS in the investigation as a temporary special agent.

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Online Journal.
Email editor@onlinejournal.com
Copyright © 1998-2004 Online Journal?. All rights reserved.

War Crimes

The Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on any medical facility or medical personnel, whether civilian or military. "Imagine the outrage if the opposition in Iraq attacked one of the medical facilities for American wounded. There would be calls for war crimes tribunals," stated Karen Parker, the attorney in this action. "Rather than being "quaint" as administration Attorney-General nominee Gonzales has said, the Geneva Conventions and human rights agreements are meant to prevent acts of barbarity in war. Besides preventing atrocities, they are meant to protect GIs from the psychological damage that afflicts people who carry out this type of action."

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7966

   November 26, 2004

     'Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah

Dahr Jamail

BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (IPS) - The U.S. military has used poison gas and other
non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report.

?Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah,? 35-year-old trader from
Fallujah Abu Hammad told IPS. ?They used everything -- tanks, artillery,
infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground.?

Hammad is from the Julan district of Fallujah where some of the heaviest
fighting occurred. Other residents of that area report the use of
illegal weapons.

?They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,?
Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. ?Then
small pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them.?

He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the
skin even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as
well as napalm are known to cause such effects. ?People suffered so much
from these,? he said.

Macabre accounts of killing of civilians are emerging through the cordon
U.S. forces are still maintaining around Fallujah.

?Doctors in Fallujah are reporting to me that there are patients in the
hospital there who were forced out by the Americans,? said Mehdi
Abdulla, a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. ?Some
doctors there told me they had a major operation going, but the soldiers
took the doctors away and left the patient to die.?

Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped from Fallujah a little over a week ago
told IPS he witnessed many atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the
city.

?I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks,? he
said. ?This happened so many times.?

Abdul Razaq Ismail who escaped from Fallujah two weeks back said
soldiers had used tanks to pull bodies to the soccer stadium to be
buried. ?I saw dead bodies on the ground and nobody could bury them
because of the American snipers,? he said. ?The Americans were dropping
some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah.?

Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to
escape the siege. ?The Americans shot them with rifles from the shore,?
he said. ?Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white
clothes over their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all
shot..?

Hammad said he had seen elderly women carrying white flags shot by U.S.
soldiers. ?Even the wounded people were killed. The Americans made
announcements for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave
Fallujah, and even the people who went there carrying white flags were
killed.?

Another Fallujah resident Khalil (40) told IPS he saw civilians shot as
they held up makeshift white flags. ?They shot women and old men in the
streets,? he said. ?Then they shot anyone who tried to get their
bodies...Fallujah is suffering too much, it is almost gone now.?

Refugees had moved to another kind of misery now, he said. ?It's a
disaster living here at this camp,? Khalil said. ?We are living like
dogs and the kids do not have enough clothes.?

Spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad Abdel Hamid Salim told
IPS that none of their relief teams had been allowed into Fallujah, and
that the military had said it would be at least two more weeks before
any refugees would be allowed back into the city.

?There is still heavy fighting in Fallujah,? said Salim. ?And the
Americans won't let us in so we can help people.?

In many camps around Fallujah and throughout Baghdad, refugees are
living without enough food, clothing and shelter. Relief groups estimate
there are at least 15,000 refugee families in temporary shelters outside
Fallujah.

_______________________________________________
More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

Ohio Results Analysis

Bob

From: Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
Date: November 19, 2004

Attached is my recently completed precinct by precinct analysis of the 2004 presidential vote in Cleveland. There are wholesale shifts of scores of votes from the Kerry column to other candidates, and astonishingly low turnouts in certain precincts and entire wards. The Ohio recount will prove these numbers to be fraudulent.

I may have identified only the tip of the iceberg. I note that there are 17,741 uncounted ballots in Cuyahoga County. Kerry's margin in Cleveland was reportedly 108,659 votes with a 49.89% turnout. The rest of Cuyahoga County had a 71.95% turnout. Such a turnout in Cleveland would have given Kerry a margin of 156,705 votes, left Bush with a statewide margin of 85,007 votes, and with 248,100 votes still uncounted, nobody would be conceding Ohio.

This is a situation that demands rigorous investigation. I can imagine Michael Moore going door to door in Ward 4, Precinct F, looking for the 215 Peroutka voters, or in Ward 4, Precinct N, looking for the 163 Badnarik voters. Or going door to door in Ward 6, Precinct C, to find out why the turnout was only 7.10% - or in Ward 13, Precincts D, F, and O, to find out why the turnout was only 13.05%, 19.60%, and 21.01%, respectively.

CUYAHOGA COUNTY CANVASS SHEET ? 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

THE FOLLOWING IS A PRECINCT BY PRECINCT ANALYSIS OF THE REPORTED VOTE TOTALS FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN THE CITY OF CLEVELAND, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, IN THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. THESE ARE DATA READILY AVAILABLE ONLINE AT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS. WHAT YOU SEE IS AN ACTUAL REPRINT OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY CANVASS SHEET.

IN ORDER TO CONDUCT THIS ANALYSIS I SET UP SEPARATE MICROSOFT WINDOWS FOR: (1) REGISTERED VOTERS, 2004; (2) VOTER TURNOUT, BY PERCENTAGE, 2004; (3) VOTE TOTALS FOR PRESIDENT, 2004; AND (4) VOTE TOTALS FOR PRESIDENT, 2000. BY CLICKING BACK AND FORTH ON THE WINDOWS I WAS ABLE TO COMPARE THESE DATA EASILY, IF TEDIOUSLY.

I HAVE DISCOVERED WHOLESALE ?IRREGULARITIES? IN THE REPORTED VOTES, SOME OF THEM HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS, OTHERS OBVIOUSLY FRAUDULENT. EVERY NUMBER I BELIEVE TO BE UNTRUE I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED IN RED, AND I HAVE WRITTEN A BRIEF ONE-LINE EXPLANATION, ALSO HIGHLIGHTED IN RED, IN THE RIGHT-HAND COLUMN NEXT TO THE HIGHLIGHTED NUMBER. THE FOLLOWING WRITE-UP IS THE BEST ESTIMATE I CAN MAKE AS TO HOW MANY VOTES WERE STOLEN FROM JOHN F. KERRY IN CLEVELAND, OHIO. IN SOME CASES THERE HAVE BEEN WHOLESALE SHIFTS OF VOTES FROM THE KERRY COLUMN TO THE BUSH COLUMN OR TO THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATES; TO ESTIMATE THE NUMBER OF VOTES TAKEN FROM KERRY, I HAVE ASSUMED THAT THE PROPORTIONS OF THE VOTE ALLOTTED ELSEWHERE IN THE WARD ARE CORRECT; IN FACT, ANY UNREPORTED VOTES COULD ALL HAVE COME FROM KERRY. IN OTHER CASES THE REPORTED VOTER TURNOUT WAS ASTONISHINGLY LOW FOR A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. FOR PURPOSES OF THIS ANALYSIS, I HAVE ADOPTED 50% AS AN ARBITRARY ESTIMATE OF THE TRUE VOTER TURNOUT FOR THE UNDERREPORTED PRECINCTS, AND HAVE ASSUMED THAT THE PROPORTIONS OF THE VOTE ALLOTTED ARE CORRECT FOR THESE PRECINCTS.

THESE ESTIMATES ARE JUST THAT. FORTUNATELY, OHIO HAS A PAPER TRAIL AND THERE WILL BE A RECOUNT. HOPEFULLY THE CORRECT NUMBERS WILL EMERGE. SOME, BUT NOT ALL, OF THE UNREPORTED VOTES WILL TURN UP AS PROVISIONAL BALLOTS OR UNCOUNTED PUNCH CARDS. WHERE WHOLESALE SHIFTING HAS OCCURRED FROM ONE COLUMN TO ANOTHER, I EXPECT THAT THE OHIO RECOUNT WILL PROVE, ONCE AND FOR ALL, ELECTION FRAUD.

LINE 1604 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 129 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 25 VOTES.
LINE 1614 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 166 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 38 VOTES.
LINE 1702 41 VOTES APPEAR IN BADNARIK COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 41 VOTES.
LINE 1709 70 VOTES APPEAR IN PETROUKA COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 70 VOTES.
LINE 1806 215 VOTES APPEAR IN PETROUKA COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 213 VOTES.
LINE 1814 163 VOTES APPEAR IN BADNARIK COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 162 VOTES.
LINE 1902 16 VOTES APPEAR IN PETROUKA COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 15 VOTES.
LINE 1903 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 390 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 142 VOTES.
LINE 1909 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 362 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 119 VOTES.
LINE 1910 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 228 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 66 VOTES.
LINE 1912 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 324 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 93 VOTES.
LINE 1915 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 157 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 25 VOTES.
LINE 1916 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 49 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 11 VOTES.
LINE 2002 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 197 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 106 VOTES.
LINE 2003 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 324 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 272 VOTES.
LINE 2004 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 229 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 93 VOTES.
LINE 2011 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 283 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 81 VOTES.
LINE 2006 NOT AN IRREGULARITY; BUSH DID WELL IN CLEVELAND 6F IN 2000.
LINE 2012 81 VOTES APPEAR IN BUSH COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 36 VOTES.
LINE 2023 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 144 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 20 VOTES.
LINE 2103 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 276 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 74 VOTES.
LINE 2111 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 120 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 35 VOTES.
LINE 2122 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 482 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 177 VOTES.
LINE 2207 51 VOTES APPEAR IN BADNARIK COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 51 VOTES.
LINE 2208 45 VOTES APPEAR IN BUSH COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 32 VOTES.
LINE 2209 27 VOTES APPEAR IN PETROUKA COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 26 VOTES.
LINE 2301 41 VOTES APPEAR IN BUSH COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 33 VOTES.
LINE 2316 87 VOTES APPEAR IN BUSH COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 68 VOTES.
LINE 2319 39 VOTES APPEAR IN BUSH COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 31 VOTES.
LINE 2412 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 433 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 212 VOTES.
LINE 2513 35 VOTES APPEAR IN THIRD PARTY COLUMNS, KERRY LOSES 33 VOTES.
LINE 2521 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 377 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 104 VOTES.
WARD 12 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 6095 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 475 VOTES.
LINE 2704 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 962 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 586 VOTES.
LINE 2706 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 411 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 242 VOTES.
LINE 2708 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 134 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 41 VOTES.
LINE 2715 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 117 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 61 VOTES.
LINE 2717 17 VOTES APPEAR IN THIRD PARTY COLUMNS, KERRY LOSES 15 VOTES.
LINE 2723 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 481 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 133 VOTES.
LINE 2724 37 VOTES APPEAR IN BADNARIK COLUMN, KERRY LOSES 36 VOTES.
LINE 2725 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 28 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 7 VOTES.
WARD 14 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 6878 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 1106 VOTES.
LINE 2902 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 132 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 36 VOTES.
LINE 2908 22 VOTES APPEAR IN THIRD PARTY COLUMNS, KERRY LOSES 20 VOTES.
LINE 2919 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 138 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 20 VOTES.
WARD 17 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 6394 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 706 VOTES.
LINE 19O 50% TURNOUT WOULD BE 239 VOTES, KERRY LOSES 44 VOTES.

CLEVELAND KERRY LOSES 6032 VOTES

THUS, A NOT UNREASONABLE CONCLUSION IS THAT TAMPERING WITH THE NUMBERS HAS COST JOHN KERRY 6,000 VOTES IN CLEVELAND.

I AM NOT CLAIMING THAT THE FINAL RESULTS, WHEN ALL THE VOTES HAVE BEEN COUNTED AND RECOUNTED, WILL COME CLOSE TO MATCHING UP WITH THE ESTIMATES I HAVE GIVEN ABOVE. I HAVE MADE THESE ESTIMATES ONLY TO GIVE THE READER SOME IDEA OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM. NOT ALL OF THESE IRREGULARITIES WILL TURN OUT TO BE FRAUD. BUT SOME OF THEM WILL. WHOLESALE SHIFTING OF SCORES OF VOTES TO THE COLUMNS OF THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES WHO RECEIVED LESS THAN ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT OF THE STATEWIDE VOTE BETWEEN THEM, VOTER TURNOUTS OF 7.10%, 13.05%, 19.60%, 21.01%, 21.80%, 24.72%, 28.83%, 28.97%, 29.25% IN CERTAIN PRECINCTS, AND A VOTER TURNOUT OF 39.35% FOR AN ENTIRE WARD, ARE SIMPLY NOT CREDIBLE.

THERE MAY BE SOME CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PRECINCTS WITH ASTONISHINGLY LOW VOTER TURNOUT, AND THE REPORTS OF LONG LINES AT THE POLLING PLACES DUE TO A LACK OF ENOUGH VOTING MACHINES. PEOPLE ON THE GROUND IN OHIO SHOULD LOOK AT THE PRECINCT MAPS, CHECK THE NEWS REPORTS, TALK WITH LOCAL RESIDENTS, AND FIGURE THIS OUT.

I WISH TO EXPRESS MY DEEPEST APPRECIATION FOR THE GRASSROOTS EFFORT THAT HAS MADE AN OHIO RECOUNT POSSIBLE. I AWAIT THE RESULTS.

RICHARD HAYES PHILLIPS, Ph.D.
http://www.northnet.org/minstrel

Bob Fitrakis says some of these issues were raised in Saturday's hearings:

In Cleveland, where a public hearing was held on Saturday, November 20, there was a different pattern of voting irregularities. These include heavily Democratic wards with abnormally low reported rates of voter turnout, three under 20%. In Precinct 6-C where Kerry beat Bush 45 votes to one, allegedly only 7.1% of the registered voters cast ballots. In precinct 13-D where Kerry received 83.8% of the vote, only 13.05% reportedly voted. In precinct 13-F where Kerry received 97.5%, the turnout was reported to be only 19.6%.

One explanation comes from Irma Olmedo, who provided the Free Press with a written statement of her activities in the heavily Hispanic ward 13, which contained the three low voter turnout precincts.

?Ohio does not have bilingual ballots and this disenfranchises many Latino voters who are not totally fluent in English . . . there were 13 poll workers at the school and none knew Spanish. Some could not even find the names of the people on the list because they couldn?t understand well when people said their names. . . . Some people put their punch card ballots in backwards when they voted and discovered that they couldn?t punch out the holes. They had not read the instructions which were in English, that they had to turn the card around in order to vote,? Olmedo stated.

Olmedo translated at precinct 13-O, where 90% of the votes were for Kerry and only 53 votes were counted. The turnout of 21% was due to the lack of Spanish instructions and the misspelling of names: ?I noticed that one named Nieves was misspelled as Nieues and the pollworkers were not able to find his name, these people were told to complete a provisional ballot because their names were not on the list.?

In Cuyahoga County, according to the Secretary of State?s website there are 24,788 provisional ballots, most of them from the city of Cleveland, not its surrounding suburbs. Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell served as Co-Chair of the Bush/Cheney Ohio reelection committee.

There also seems to be an abnormally high vote count for third party candidates who received less than one-half of one percent of the statewide vote total combined. For example, in precinct 4-F, the right-wing Constitutional Law candidate Peroutka received 215 votes to Bush?s 21 and Kerry?s 290. In this precinct, Kerry received 55% of the vote where Gore received 91% of the vote in the year 200. These numbers suggest that Kerry?s votes were inadvertently or intentionally shifted to Peroutka.
2004 President

Stealing votes in Columbus
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
November 23, 2004

The Free Press on Election Day posted a disturbing story, later confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch. The Free Press reported that Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder deliberately withheld voting machines from predominantly black Democratic wards in Columbus, and dispersed some of the machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.

Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party. Sources close to the Board of Elections told the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio?s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President George W. Bush in Columbus on Election Day.

The idea was to discourage turnout in Democratic wards by forcing voters to wait in long lines at the polling places. Such a strategy would be far more effective than encouraging turnout in Republican wards. Elections are all about margins. There are 74 wards in Columbus. George W. Bush won 12 wards, with a margin of 7.35%. John F. Kerry won 62 wards, with a margin of 37.62%. Affecting Kerry?s turnout would greatly reduce his margin of victory in Columbus, giving the Republicans a much better chance of overtaking Kerry given a strong enough showing in suburban and small town Republican strongholds.

COLUMBUS POPULAR VOTE (EXCLUDING PROVISIONAL BALLOTS)

Location Kerry Bush Others

Kerry Wards 141520 68.40% 63693 30.78% 1704 0.82%

Bush Wards 36228 46.01% 42015 53.36% 496 0.63%

Grand Total 177748 62.22% 105708 37.01% 2200 0.77%

In order to investigate this matter, I obtained from the Franklin County Board of Elections all the data I needed in order to calculate, ward by ward, and precinct by precinct: (1) The ratio of registered voters per voting machine. (2) Percent turnout, calculated as total ballots cast divided by the number of registered voters. (3) Percent for Kerry, calculated as votes cast for Kerry divided by votes cast for president. (4) Margin of victory or defeat for Kerry, calculated as the difference between the vote totals for Kerry and Bush.

The first thing I noticed was the distribution of turnout. There is a statistically significant difference between the turnout in the Bush precincts and the turnout in the Kerry precincts.

DISTRIBUTION OF TURNOUT

Percent Bush Kerry

Turnout Precincts Precincts

> 60 68 57

55-60 32 55

50-55 17 73

45-50 7 78

40-45 1 49

< 40 0 34

Total 125 346

Median Bush Precinct: 60.56%

Median Kerry Precinct: 50.78%

Best Bush Precinct: Ward 57, Precinct F

Bush 64.97% Kerry 34.82% Margin 30.05%

Best Kerry Precinct: Ward 17, Precinct D

Kerry 97.66% Bush 1.98% Margin 95.68%

Note: Ward 22, Precinct H was a tie.

As the above table shows, turnout was over 60% in 68 of 125 Bush precincts (54.4%), and over 50% in 117 of 125 Bush precincts (93.6%). By contrast, turnout was over 60% in only 57 of 346 Kerry precincts (16.5%), over 50% in only 185 of 346 Kerry precincts (53.5%), and under 40% in 34 of 346 Kerry precincts (9.8%).

Was the uneven distribution of turnout due to a lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate? Or was it due to an uneven distribution of voting machines? To answer this question, I arranged the data, ward by ward, according to the ratio of registered voters per voting machine.

DISTRIBUTION OF VOTING MACHINES, TOP OF THE LIST

Ward Voters/ Percent Kerry Kerry

Machine Turnout Percent Margin

WARD 19 261.2 67.99 63.33 + 1491

WARD 65 265.1 60.10 44.33 - 496

WARD 30 266.4 56.25 52.50 + 147

WARD 72 267.4 62.33 39.42 - 774

WARD 22 274.1 60.21 54.89 + 465

WARD 28 276.2 58.48 82.04 + 2371

WARD 63 278.7 56.10 47.37 - 242

WARD 48 278.9 52.84 82.37 + 1909

WARD 46 279.8 58.22 55.19 + 981

WARD 70 285.5 61.17 50.95 + 79

WARD 06 292.9 47.44 91.29 + 2494

WARD 21 293.9 57.92 58.45 + 719

WARD 34 295.8 55.85 65.05 + 1051

WARD 69 296.4 57.97 41.98 - 1030

WARD 60 296.7 55.97 44.27 - 478

WARD 66 300.0 53.01 52.32 + 203

WARD 05 302.9 46.24 94.34 + 1854

WARD 62 303.2 57.96 55.68 + 760

WARD 45 303.8 57.89 55.47 + 1208

WARD 47 304.8 52.85 73.83 + 1534

WARD 20 306.2 61.96 71.46 + 1077

WARD 53 307.2 53.66 55.01 + 499

WARD 15 308.4 51.88 60.71 + 291

WARD 27 308.4 53.06 68.63 + 1283

WARD 56 308.6 55.71 82.75 + 4065

WARD 52 308.7 53.68 68.52 + 1610

WARD 10 311.5 57.18 47.58 - 560

WARD 67 313.1 54.17 48.03 - 221

WARD 64 313.6 52.73 47.88 - 153

WARD 57 314.2 56.81 48.74 - 155

WARD 50 316.4 59.54 77.14 + 1447

WARD 58 317.6 55.04 49.82 + 41

WARD 07 318.1 44.24 94.21 + 2332

WARD 36 318.7 53.31 50.57 + 91

WARD 43 319.9 56.27 58.53 + 475

WARD 73 320.6 58.23 44.18 - 1032

WARD 71 322.2 53.93 47.58 - 307

WARD 74 322.8 55.02 46.19 - 339

As the above table shows, the 38 wards in which the number of registered voters per voting machine was the lowest enjoyed high voter turnout. All but 3 of the 38 wards at the top of Damschroder?s list had a turnout above 50%, and 6 of the 38 wards at the top of the list had a turnout above 60%. All 12 of the Bush wards are included in the top of the list. The 26 Kerry wards in the top of the list are not his biggest strongholds. In only 13 of the 26 wards did Kerry exceed his city wide share of 62.22% of the vote, which makes 13 of 38 wards altogether. However, these Kerry wards did enjoy a high voter turnout. In 23 of the 26 wards, Kerry?s turnout exceeded that of his median precinct, 50.78%. Turnout exceeded 55% in 14 Kerry wards, and exceeded 60% in 3 Kerry wards. Clearly, Kerry enjoyed a higher turnout where the polling places had enough voting machines. What about the bottom of the list?

DISTRIBUTION OF VOTING MACHINES, BOTTOM OF THE LIST

Ward Voters/ Percent Kerry Kerry

Machine Turnout Percent Margin

WARD 38 324.4 48.15 67.32 + 546

WARD 35 327.5 50.90 92.36 + 2104

WARD 17 330.6 48.67 93.12 + 2465

WARD 42 330.6 46.34 70.77 + 966

WARD 14 333.4 49.37 81.31 + 2068

WARD 13 338.6 44.91 93.36 + 1702

WARD 44 340.7 48.87 72.98 + 3212

WARD 18 342.4 55.15 76.84 + 2043

WARD 51 343.6 46.93 88.59 + 1857

WARD 61 345.6 49.28 62.35 + 594

WARD 68 347.3 44.61 75.43 + 950

WARD 04 348.6 37.69 91.75 + 1643

WARD 32 348.7 55.11 58.82 + 456

WARD 26 349.3 41.34 89.69 + 1692

WARD 33 350.1 52.64 69.19 + 1803

WARD 54 350.6 52.77 59.82 + 668

WARD 49 353.9 50.76 54.45 + 370

WARD 25 354.6 52.90 91.57 + 3872

WARD 24 356.9 48.99 68.47 + 991

WARD 37 356.9 44.37 58.99 + 441

WARD 02 357.1 52.56 69.94 + 1517

WARD 11 365.4 49.14 58.80 + 531

WARD 31 367.0 45.05 69.86 + 1000

WARD 29 369.2 45.65 61.09 + 417

WARD 16 369.5 44.61 75.98 + 1732

WARD 09 373.4 35.06 68.71 + 497

WARD 39 374.4 46.29 70.06 + 711

WARD 55 377.3 43.55 88.64 + 1644

WARD 59 381.2 48.32 54.16 + 288

WARD 08 381.8 41.52 68.99 + 974

WARD 40 381.8 42.41 78.15 + 1205

WARD 03 396.9 44.69 84.66 + 1728

WARD 41 400.5 40.22 65.95 + 1110

WARD 23 400.9 47.57 73.47 + 1252

WARD 01 407.1 44.37 68.50 + 744

WARD 12 423.9 41.81 86.47 + 1557

As the above table shows, the 36 wards in which the number of registered voters per voting machine was the highest suffered low voter turnout. All but 8 of the 36 wards at the bottom of Damschroder?s list had a turnout below 50%, and 2 of the 36 wards at the bottom of the list had a turnout below 40%. All 36 of the wards at the bottom of the list were won by Kerry, and they include most of his strongholds. In 29 of the 36 wards, Kerry exceeded his city wide share of 62.22% of the vote. However, these wards suffered a low voter turnout. In only 7 of the 36 wards did Kerry?s turnout exceed that of his median precinct, 50.78%. Turnout was below 45% in 14 of the 36 wards, and was below 40% in 2 Kerry wards. Clearly, Kerry suffered a lower turnout where the polling places did not have enough voting machines.

A similar pattern is evident when examining the data for individual precincts. I have arranged the data in the same manner as above, precinct by precinct, according to the ratio of registered voters per voting machine. The 61 precincts with the lowest ratio of registered voters per voting machine are shown below:

PRECINCTS WITH THE MOST VOTING MACHINES

Ward & Voters/ Percent Kerry Kerry

Precinct Machine Turnout Percent Margin

60-G 166.0 65.06 40.99 - 56

22-H 176.3 63.52 49.23 0

63-I 180.0 53.52 52.10 + 14

28-G 185.7 57.99 76.34 + 170

69-G 190.0 53.16 48.33 - 10

63-E 192.3 62.05 43.75 - 41

52-H 192.7 52.08 70.76 + 133

70-C 199.5 63.73 50.47 + 12

67-K 212.7 64.58 42.16 - 61

65-G 213.8 61.57 40.15 - 153

46-F 215.7 65.84 39.71 - 85

30-C 216.7 66.00 50.95 + 10

65-D 219.3 65.65 44.08 - 50

33-H 221.7 52.48 78.03 + 195

72-D 228.0 67.21 38.30 - 136

46-I 228.2 64.68 54.96 + 76

69-D 228.6 64.48 47.81 - 29

28-E 229.0 69.98 88.23 + 488

21-E 231.0 68.57 58.93 + 142

19-D 232.0 66.55 58.87 + 142

64-D 235.3 58.50 47.33 - 20

46-A 235.7 61.53 48.85 - 10

71-A 236.3 67.14 42.19 - 69

10-E 238.6 67.73 36.63 - 211

56-C 239.3 63.51 74.67 + 224

57-D 240.0 67.33 43.50 - 102

19-G 241.0 68.36 58.66 + 117

21-F 242.0 66.63 57.98 + 105

57-H 242.3 63.82 50.22 + 6

15-B 242.5 62.47 54.62 + 68

34-E 242.7 63.32 59.04 + 90

60-F 242.8 64.37 37.18 - 155

10-H 244.0 64.07 49.46 - 2

66-F 244.3 66.85 46.42 - 32

57-K 245.0 68.42 46.31 - 75

18-D 246.7 67.97 71.49 + 217

72-A 247.0 64.68 40.13 - 122

18-E 247.3 62.89 75.84 + 308

65-H 247.3 50.27 54.86 + 40

48-D 247.5 56.67 83.70 + 380

14-D 249.7 56.88 79.48 + 252

19-C 250.0 72.00 59.55 + 139

70-E 250.0 51.11 65.83 + 167

46-B 250.8 58.13 51.94 + 27

60-D 251.5 63.62 45.02 - 61

45-I 251.6 52.31 56.31 + 85

64-H 252.8 54.70 52.28 + 26

48-E 253.0 58.50 62.33 + 78

73-E 253.1 60.78 49.67 - 1

06-E 254.0 50.49 94.43 + 453

70-D 255.3 66.41 50.30 + 11

66-D 255.6 55.79 48.52 - 18

69-C 255.8 54.50 36.10 - 186

42-C 256.0 61.98 57.14 + 74

46-L 256.0 66.54 57.84 + 162

10-P 256.5 65.30 35.33 - 190

47-F 257.7 50.84 76.96 + 211

45-H 259.8 60.59 44.03 - 183

19-B 261.0 70.11 60.80 + 164

52-B 261.5 62.43 62.21 + 159

69-I 261.5 68.36 37.80 - 169

As the table above shows, of the 61 precincts with the most voting machines per registered voter, 26 were won by Bush, 34 were won by Kerry, and one was a tie. Again, Bush enjoys disproportional favoritism. Bush won 125 precincts and 26 of them (20.80%) are represented here. Kerry won 346 precincts, only 34 (0.98%) are represented here, and they are not his major strongholds. In only 12 of the 34 Kerry precincts did he exceed his city wide share of 62.22% of the vote, which makes 12 of 61 precincts altogether. Most of these precincts enjoyed high voter turnout. In all 61 precincts, turnout was above 50%. In 42 of the 61 precincts, turnout was above that of Bush?s median precinct, 60.56%. Of these 42 precincts, 22 were won by Bush, and 20 were won by Kerry. This proves once and for all that the Kerry precincts could have enjoyed a voter turnout similar to that of the Bush precincts, if only they had been supplied with enough voting machines.

And what of the precincts with not enough voting machines? The 60 precincts with the highest ratio of registered voters per voting machine are shown below:

PRECINCTS WITH THE FEWEST VOTING MACHINES

Ward & Voters/ Percent Kerry Kerry

Precinct Machine Turnout Percent Margin

12-A 551.7 34.50 84.96 + 407

01-B 540.0 34.57 68.41 + 211

25-B 507.7 41.56 91.33 + 522

23-B 501.0 41.38 79.13 + 363

41-C 490.0 38.91 60.53 + 127

60-E 481.0 40.47 51.05 + 15

11-A 476.7 35.24 74.80 + 252

18-A 475.0 48.77 80.46 + 430

59-D 464.3 45.51 59.46 + 123

03-D 462.3 46.21 79.15 + 374

03-A 461.0 37.09 92.37 + 442

54-C 459.7 40.54 63.82 + 159

40-A 458.0 40.90 77.10 + 312

10-U 455.0 52.00 53.15 + 85

12-B 453.3 38.60 92.31 + 445

61-C 449.7 43.66 70.31 + 234

49-E 447.3 38.75 52.70 + 30

55-B 446.0 42.38 91.80 + 473

23-A 444.0 45.12 81.76 + 381

09-B 439.8 28.82 68.66 + 195

02-A 439.7 38.06 80.32 + 308

57-A 437.3 42.91 65.41 + 176

31-C 437.0 39.97 65.07 + 160

16-E 436.7 41.98 68.50 + 205

32-C 436.3 43.54 60.99 + 128

74-F 436.3 45.23 51.86 + 25

54-A 435.7 46.82 67.77 + 218

11-D 435.0 47.28 55.67 + 81

69-H 433.8 54.76 40.93 - 167

53-G 432.7 45.30 68.49 + 219

10-C 431.0 39.68 81.80 + 321

69-J 428.8 47.00 47.44 - 38

67-A 427.3 54.37 41.99 - 108

16-C 427.0 40.28 77.13 + 475

29-A 426.0 36.85 70.81 + 196

04-C 423.3 32.44 89.46 + 332

41-D 423.0 42.47 64.75 + 165

36-G 421.0 37.29 66.52 + 156

08-D 419.7 51.55 69.47 + 253

42-A 417.7 40.30 81.64 + 321

57-B 417.0 48.28 57.87 + 97

73-B 415.0 41.69 46.41 - 29

26-A 413.0 41.81 89.88 + 403

02-B 412.3 53.27 69.54 + 263

52-E 412.0 46.60 87.39 + 431

08-A 411.6 30.95 79.75 + 381

73-J 411.6 63.56 42.62 - 189

44-A 409.7 48.90 86.36 + 434

57-G 409.0 43.60 50.00 + 7

33-C 407.0 47.42 64.11 + 170

46-J 405.7 47.99 66.38 + 197

44-B 405.3 45.97 81.37 + 348

44-G 405.0 37.22 79.02 + 348

71-B 404.3 42.04 49.80 + 1

49-D 403.7 45.33 51.58 + 22

24-B 402.7 45.45 65.50 + 174

39-A 401.0 46.05 67.51 + 398

55-D 400.7 42.43 87.38 + 382

10-A 400.3 39.72 55.91 + 60

45-J 398.8 57.30 58.77 + 165

As the table above shows, of the 60 precincts with the fewest voting machines per registered voter, only 5 were won by Bush, and 55 were won by Kerry. Again, Bush enjoys disproportional favoritism. Bush won 125 precincts, and only 5 of them (4.00%) are represented here. Kerry won 346 precincts, 55 (15.9%) are represented here, and they include his major strongholds. In 41 of the 55 Kerry precincts, he exceeded his city wide share of 62.22% of the vote. None of these precincts enjoyed high voter turnout. In only 7 of the precincts was turnout was above 50%. Of these, 4 were won by Kerry, and 3 were won by Bush. Turnout was below 45% in 34 precincts, below 40% in 16 precincts, below 35% in 5 precincts, and below 30% in one precinct.

It is important to understand what these numbers mean. The polls in Ohio were open from 6:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M. That is 13 hours, or 780 minutes. If there are 400 registered voters per voting machine, and turnout is 60%, each voter has less than 3.5 minutes to vote, and that is assuming a steady stream of voters, with no rushes at certain hours. It also assumes no challenges to voters at the polls. If there are 550 registered voters per voting machine, and the turnout is 60%, each voter has 2.4 minutes.

All of this amounts to theft of votes. It has been shown above that the Kerry precincts enjoyed a voter turnout similar to that of the Bush precincts when supplied with enough voting machines.

It is an easy matter to calculate, assuming the same vote percentages for each ward, how many more votes John Kerry would have gotten with a 60% voter turnout. This is not an unreasonable number. The median Bush precinct enjoyed a turnout of 60.56%. The turnout was 66.31% for Cincinnati, city wide.

I am aware that because the Franklin County Board of Elections did not purge its voter rolls, there are more registered voters than adults listed as living in Franklin County by the United States Census. There are many ?registered? voters who are dead or have moved away. One might expect, therefore, a lower percentage of voter turnout in Cleveland than in Cincinnati. However, 60% of the voting age population is a reasonable figure. Presidential elections have surpassed this figure four times in my lifetime: 1952 (61.6%), 1960 (62.8%), 1964 (61.9%), and 1968 (60.9%). In 1992 the figure was 55.9%, and the 2004 election was probably more hotly contested.

PROJECTED COLUMBUS RETURNS WITH 60% TURNOUT

Ward or Percent Kerry With 60% Gain or

Precinct Turnout Margin Turnout Loss

WARD 01 44.37 + 744 + 1006 + 262

WARD 02 52.56 + 1517 + 1732 + 215

WARD 03 44.69 + 1728 + 2320 + 592

WARD 04 37.69 + 1643 + 2616 + 973

WARD 05 46.24 + 1854 + 2406 + 552

WARD 06 47.44 + 2494 + 3154 + 660

WARD 07 44.24 + 2332 + 3163 + 831

WARD 08 41.52 + 974 + 1408 + 434

WARD 09 35.06 + 497 + 851 + 354

WARD 10 57.18 - 560 - 588 - 28

WARD 11 49.14 + 531 + 648 + 117

WARD 12 41.81 + 1557 + 2234 + 677

WARD 13 44.91 + 1702 + 2274 + 572

WARD 14 49.37 + 2068 + 2513 + 445

WARD 15 51.88 + 291 + 337 + 46

WARD 16 44.61 + 1732 + 2330 + 598

WARD 17 48.67 + 2465 + 3039 + 574

WARD 18 55.15 + 2043 + 2223 + 180

WARD 19 67.99 + 1491

WARD 20 61.96 + 1077

WARD 21 57.92 + 719 + 745 + 26

WARD 22 60.21 + 465

WARD 23 47.57 + 1252 + 1579 + 327

WARD 24 48.99 + 991 + 1214 + 223

WARD 25 52.90 + 3872 + 4392 + 520

WARD 26 41.34 + 1692 + 2456 + 764

WARD 27 53.06 + 1283 + 1451 + 168

WARD 28 58.48 + 2371 + 2433 + 62

WARD 29 45.65 + 417 + 548 + 131

WARD 30 56.25 + 147 + 157 + 10

WARD 31 45.05 + 1000 + 1332 + 332

WARD 32 55.11 + 456 + 496 + 40

WARD 33 52.64 + 1803 + 2055 + 252

WARD 34 55.85 + 1051 + 1129 + 78

WARD 35 50.90 + 2104 + 2480 + 376

WARD 36 53.31 + 91 + 102 + 11

WARD 37 44.37 + 441 + 596 + 155

WARD 38 48.15 + 546 + 680 + 134

WARD 39 46.29 + 711 + 922 + 211

WARD 40 42.41 + 1205 + 1705 + 500

WARD 41 40.22 + 1110 + 1656 + 546

WARD 42 46.34 + 966 + 1251 + 285

WARD 43 56.27 + 475 + 506 + 31

WARD 44 48.87 + 3212 + 3944 + 732

WARD 45 57.89 + 1208 + 1252 + 44

WARD 46 58.22 + 981 + 1011 + 30

WARD 47 52.85 + 1534 + 1742 + 208

WARD 48 52.84 + 1909 + 2168 + 259

WARD 49 50.76 + 370 + 437 + 67

WARD 50 59.54 + 1447 + 1458 + 11

WARD 51 46.93 + 1857 + 2374 + 517

WARD 52 53.68 + 1610 + 1800 + 190

WARD 53 53.66 + 499 + 558 + 59

WARD 54 52.77 + 668 + 760 + 92

WARD 55 43.55 + 1644 + 2265 + 621

WARD 56 55.71 + 4065 + 4378 + 313

WARD 57 56.81 - 155 - 164 - 9

WARD 58 55.04 + 41 + 45 + 4

WARD 59 48.32 + 288 + 358 + 70

WARD 60 55.97 - 478 - 512 - 34

WARD 61 49.28 + 594 + 723 + 129

WARD 62 57.96 + 760 + 787 + 27

WARD 63 56.10 - 242 - 259 - 17

WARD 64 52.73 - 153 - 174 - 21

WARD 65 60.10 - 496

WARD 66 53.01 + 203 + 230 + 27

WARD 67 54.17 - 221 - 245 - 24

WARD 68 44.61 + 950 + 1278 + 328

WARD 69 57.97 - 1030 - 1066 - 36

WARD 70 61.17 + 79

WARD 71 53.93 - 307 - 342 - 35

WARD 72 62.33 - 774

WARD 73 58.23 - 1032 - 1063 - 31

WARD 74 55.02 - 339 - 370 - 31

GRAND TOTAL +16788

Thus I conclude that the withholding of voting machines from predominantly Democratic wards in the City of Columbus cost John Kerry upwards of 17,000 votes. A more detailed calculation could be done on a precinct by precinct basis, but that is not necessary here. The purpose is to illustrate the magnitude of the conspiracy.

Matt Damschroder did not act alone. There are 74 wards and 472 precincts in Columbus, Ohio. It is not possible for one person to have delivered all the voting machines, and it is unlikely that nobody else was involved in planning where to deliver them. Anyone who associated with Mr. Damschroder on or shortly before Election Day should be investigated for possible complicity.

Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
Canton, New York

Privacy

Finally, an objection to homosexual marriage I can deal with. One of those Old Testament fundamentalists explained his position quite clearly on the evening news. He said he doesn't want to see men being intimately affectionate in the stands when he takes his son to a baseball game. I can agree with that. I don't want to see it either.

In fact, I don't want to see heterosexual couples or groups engaging in intimate behavior in public. I don't want to see their private parts either; nor do I want to see them fondling other people's private parts. I don't even want to see married couples' intimate behavior (Al Gore kissing Tipper on the lips went too far) and I particularly don't want to see politicians kissing other people's babies. That's an unsanitary practice that should be abhored.

But, what I find really outrageous is people in the middle of an airport concourse (how more public can you get) being forced to take off their shoes and allow themselves to be "patted-down" like some criminal that's just been hauled off to jail. No, I don't want to see that and I'm sure not going to submit to such an invasion of my privacy.

If I were ever to take a trip on a commercial airliner (which I haven't yet), I would be prepared for the possibility of a crash and my immediate death. How that crash came about would not concern me significantly, though I would be momentarily annoyed if the failure to shut a door allowed an incompetent to take the pilot's place. On the other hand, the probability of having to undergo a body search, a violation that would stay with me the rest of my life, ostensibly to prevent a recurrence of something that only happened once in all of human history, is more than enough to convince me that it's just not worth it. Bad enough that I have to see a stream people go through the humiliation whenever I go to meet someone arriving on a plane.

In short, there's lots of behaviors that ought to be private that I don't want to see in public. The question is whether the proper response is "there oughta be a law" or to just use my eyelids for the purpose for which they were intended--i.e. to close my eyes and shut out the offending view.

It seems to me that we are relying increasingly on making behaviors illegal at the same time that we indulge all kinds of behaviors that are disgusting and should, therefore, be carried out in private. The fact is that many necessary bodily functions are unpleasant when they have to be witnessed by others (flossing the teeth is one, in case you need a mild example). Which is why we have defined categories of public and private and designated one or the other as appropriate, albeit in a somewhat arbitrary fashion.

What is perceived as disgusting in one culture may be perfectly acceptable in another. But there are behaviors which universally disgust and even their designation has to be taught (as every parent of infants surely knows). And it's the failure to teach which behaviors are appropriate to the public and private realm which seems to be responsible for the increasing effort to regulate human behaviors and relationships by law.

So, while I can agree with the fellow who doesn't want to see guys hugging and kissing in the stands, I've got to tell him that preventing people from entering into legal relationships for mutual support is not the solution. Their legal status has nothing to do with how people behave in public; nor in private, for that matter. Lots of people whose public behavior is inoffensive, are pure hell to live with in private. Primarily because, I would suggest, they haven't been taught to respect the right of the other to be secure in his or her person--i.e. the right to privacy. A right, by the way, which our government doesn't recognize either.

Fascism on Fox

From Sean Donahue
Monday, November 22, 2004 4:55 PM:
-----------------------------------------------------
In one of the oddest moments of my brief journalistic career, I have been invited to discuss American Fascism and the rise of George W. Bush tommorow night on Fox News Radio on the Alan Colmes show at 11:15 p.m. EST. The program should be available on one of
the following two websites:

Alan Colmes website: http://www.alan.com/index2.html
FoxNewsRadio: http://www.foxnews.com/alancolmesradio/

Apparently the producer of the program read the following commentary that I posted on the NarcoSphere section of the NarcoNews website.

Sean Donahue

AMERICAN FASCISM

"American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery."

-- Henry Wallace, "The Dangers of American Fascism,"
The New York Times, Sunday, April 9, 1944

"Third Worlders see it first," Buffy St. Marie sang on a recent album. And the first signs of the rise of Fascism in the U.S. could be seen in Colombia two years ago.

In 2002, Alvaro Uribe, backed by a narco-traffickers, multinational corporations, and unreconstructed Fallangists won Colombia's presidential election by exploiting middle class fears of guerilla kidnappings and urban car bombings. Uribe immediately launched a
harsh crackdown on dissidents, workers, and campesinos, in the name of fighting terrorism and crime and making Colombia safe for investors. The Bush administration and its fellow travelers at the Miami Herald and similar daily rags praised Uribe for his dedication to imposing order in Colombia, and asserted that his critics were anti-democratic because
Uribe was an elected leader. (1) In response, Hector Mondragon, one of Colombia's bravest and most insightful social critics, asked,

"Is it not Fascism because there was an election? Weren't Hitler and Mussolini elected? What was Hitler's popularity during the Holocaust? This is what Fascism is like. Fascism is popular. The middle class loves it. The enemies of the state are being eliminated. The streets are being cleaned. And the middle class applauds. The city has never looked so
good. The tourists can say what they said when they went to Germany in 1937: 'Why do people speak so poorly of the government? Germany has never been so beautiful.' Or Colombia.'"

Or the U.S. What did the Fascist regimes in Italy, Germany, and Spain have in common? They consisted of a highly militarized state, backed by corporations and a wealthy elite, that rose to power through a false populism that exploited the public's fear of foreigners and "moral degenerates." This precisely defines the formula that Karl Rove designed to
consolidate the Bush administration's power in the recent election.

Pollsters and pundits cited "moral values" as the key issue for majority of Bush supporters in the 2004 election. The "moral values" these voters were talking about were a strict and exaggerated code of masculinity that emphasized men's control of their own sensual desires and of women's bodies. Abortion, contraception, and same sex sexual relationships
(especially between men) represent deep threats to this "moral" order. This equation of morality with hyper-masculinity also creates a mindset that demands unquestioning support for the military. Civil liberties issues come into play here as well - those who resist controls on their behavior must have some sort of deviant desires that they want to be able to play out freely.

This hyper-masculine order is at the core of Fascism. "Sexual deviants" were among the first targets of the Holocaust. In Colombia, when right wing paramilitaries take over a region they instill fear and establish their dominance by launching "social cleansing" campaigns that target gays, lesbians, prostitutes, street vendors, the homeless and drug users - all people who in some way threaten a "moral" code based on strength and masculine self-control.

Fascism views dissent differently than more subtle, liberal systems of control. Traditionally on a domestic level the U.S. has operated primarily through exercising hegemony - creating the illusion of consensus around a dominant ideology to limit debate by drowning out or marginalizing dissent. If dissent grows too strong, its co-opted through subtle reform.
Fascism replaces hegemony with totalitarianism, crushing dissent. Dissidents become the enemy. "You are either with us or against us."

The totalitarian desire to impose order and define the boundaries of acceptable thought meets the moralistic drive to suppress sensual desires in the war on drugs. As a former alcoholic and cocaine addict who ostensibly kicked his habits by accepting Jesus into his life, George W. Bush presents himself as the central figure in a morality play in which drug use is
portrayed as a failure of self control that can only be remedied through accepting a rigid structure into ones' life. The user is defined as a sinner, and by extension therapeutic approaches to drug addiction are rejected on the theory that they fail to address the
addict's moral failure. The fact that most of the drugs defined as illicit can create mental and
physical states that can lead to testing and transcending sexual and ideological boundaries serves as evidence that using these drugs is a sin. Sugar, caffeine, and television, being drugs that aid in the institution of control, are of course treated differently.

With the second Bush administration, the rise of Fascism in the U.S. is nearly complete. We're now in a position of needing to resist its consolidation.

____________
NOTES

1. Uribe clearly won a solid and "fair" victory in wealthy and middle class enclaves. However, in the countryside and in poor urban barrios, armed factions controlled the voting. In guerilla held areas, the ostensibly Marxist FARC and ELN suppressed the vote. And in paramilitary controlled areas the right wing AUC threatened to carry out one killing for every vote for a candidate other than Uribe. The "opinion polls" frequently cited as evidence of Uribe's popularity in the U.S. and Colombian press are conducted by telephone or by internet - methods that clearly exclude the poor majority in a country where over 60% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.

No More Indulgence

Sorry everybody,

Perhaps I should explain why I am using that phrase as a sign-in. It is an effort to indicate that I share the sorrow which has resulted from what Americans have been doing around the world.
However, as I used the tell my kids, sorrow is an easy emotion. I never wanted to hear "sorry" from them. What I wanted was an admission that they had done something either stupid or bad and a pledge that they wouldn't do it again.

Sorry everybody,

Perhaps I should explain why I am using that phrase as a sign-in. It is an effort to indicate that I share the sorrow which has resulted from what Americans have been doing around the world.
However, as I used the tell my kids, sorrow is an easy emotion. I never wanted to hear "sorry" from them. What I wanted was an admission that they had done something either stupid or bad and a pledge that they wouldn't do it again.

In this case, unfortunately, the majority of the American people, especially Democrats, can't make such a pledge, because they haven't done anything bad.

Then, why, you might ask, are they wailing and gnashing their teeth and heaping ashes on their heads? Good question. Further posts will be an attempt to answer.
******************************
So why are Democrats wailing and gnashing their teeth? It's a matter of pride, power and prejudice.

What pride, you ask. Well, when someone has been abused, humiliated, beaten and robbed and prefers to conclude that it was all somehow his own fault, that he failed to prevent all these things being done to him, then he obviously prefers not only to think of himself first, but to assume that he is in control of his fate. That, of course, was Job's failing. He refused to see that what was happening had nothing to do with him. And just so, many if not most Democrats feel content to accept responsibility for something they didn't do, rather than make sure it is set right.

In other words, Democrats are more interested in the power they might wield in changing other people's minds (next time) than in exercising the right they now have to see that the laws are enforced and that the evil-doers are punished.
What evil-doers, you ask. Well, for starters there's a warlord occupying our White House and the White House is not where such a person belongs. Of course, his confusion about his role may be understandable, considering that he got a whole Department of Defense which now refers to its members as "warfighters." (Perhaps that's just a lame attempt to refute the role of "peacekeeper" that some people envision for the Department of Defense, but it certainly reflects an attitude that needs to be examined).

In any event, that Democrats prefer pride and power over a realistic assessment of what the world is all about, may just be an unintended consequence of the prejudices of the brain. What do I mean by that? Well, the brain, when it's left to do its thing on automatic--i.e. without conscious review to check for new input--prefers information that agrees with what's already there, that reinforces what it's learned before and, as a result of that reinforcement, generates the satisfaction of being right.
In this particular instance, our attitude towards the major presidential candidates, having our assessment that the democratic candidate was not the "best he could be" confirmed by the electoral results makes us feel better than we should, considering that our government has been hijacked by a bunch of thugs.

It's sort of like saying, "I knew I should have just stayed in bed this morning" when some dodo just ran into your car as you drove through an intersection on a green light.

OK, you say, so what are the Democrats supposed to do? A fair question, but before I answer it, I do want to point out that the Democrats have been guilty of one thing--being too indulgent.

Now, you may think that indulgence is a good thing. It's not. Indulgences are bad. Not so long ago, it was pretty common for Catholics to earn themselves "indulgences" by performing good deeds ahead of time, in order to make up for the sins they were certain to commit. Indulgences are sort of an insurance policy where Catholics are concerned.

However, most people tend to see their own indulgence of other people's bad behavior as a virtue. Letting others get away with stuff they would not do themselves is considered being liberal, charitable, magnanimous in not being overly judgemental. But is it really? Couldn't it just as easily be a sign of laziness?

Wouldn't it be more charitable to set some standards of good behavior and hold our friends and relatives to them? Want an example? Well, there's the so-called "war on drugs," or rather, the war on "illegal" drugs. It's important to make that distinction, because our consumption of legal drugs is going through the roof. Indeed, the use of the qualifier, "illegal" can't help but send the message that taking drugs is good, as long as they have been FDA approved.

In any event, while it has been reported that the warlords of Afghanistan have been transformed into simple gangsters, nothing is being done about the drug lords who are busy importing those poisons, heroine and cocaine, by the ton into the United States. For that to be going on, surely somebody's being indulgent about behavior that doesn't affect them personally. Somebody's looking the other way--some dock worker, some customs inspector, some trucking outfit, some seller of glacine baggies. The poison doesn't get from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the streets of red America by itself.

But then, we have become indulgent about a lot of poisons. Plants we don't like are to be attacked and killed with herbicides. Critters we don't like are to be attacked and killed with pesticides. It isn't that we've become a society that's fixated on death; we just indulge it.
*******************************

I started out this morning castigating the Democrats for their wailing and gnashing of teeth at having "lost" something that was actually stolen. But, they are not alone in their wailing and gnashing of teeth. There's thousands of people bemoaning the death of their loved-ones in Iraq, never mind all those who lost dear ones on September 11, 2001. And then, of course, there's all those people left behind and bereft by the forty five THOUSAND people killed on our roads and highways every year.

Is there wailing and gnashing of teeth about that? If so, it's obviously not doing any good because the carnage continues year after year. And who are the victims of this carnage? Well, the majority are in the same age group as are the people being killed over in Iraq. And why? Because the people who supposedly loved them, were indulgent.

After all, who taught them to drive poorly? Who lent them the family car? Who took them to get a diver's license and who then adjusted the family schedule so they could get a job so they could pay off a portion of the cost of a car and a portion of the insurance that would bail them out of the hospital when they landed in the hospital, as they most surely would? Right. Indulgent parents who were relieved not to have to be bothered with providing adequate supervision, transportation and standards of behavior that would keep their children safe. Indulgence is not a virtue.
Indulge is what lazy people do. And then when their indulgence has bad consequence, they indulge themselves even more by turning to some "comfort food."

It occurs to me that conservatives may actually have a point when they rail about liberals. But, because they are using the wrong word, they manage to overlook that they share in the characteristics they decry. What they should really be addressing is their own indulgence and lazy attitude, heaping scorn on liberals for behaviors that they engage in in spades.

Who, after all, has allowed the makers of munitions to get away with using free depleted uranium so the producers of this waste could avoid disposal costs? Who has looked the other way as the air and water was the preferred waste-disposal venue? Who has permitted the castigation and intimidation of other nations over a few deadly munitions while paying for the production and storage of the largest arsenal on the face of the earth? Yes, who's paid for it, just as they pay for their teenager's deadly cars? That's right, tax-paying middle America.
And why? Because it is perceived to be good to be indulgent, to let people do what they want, even if it's bad for them in the long run.
So what's in order? Well, I know what I intend. I intend to expend some righteous anger, like Jesus in the temple driving the money-changers out. It isn't about money; it's about indulging behavior where it doesn't belong--changing money in the temple.
There will be no more indulgence from this quarter.

Sy Hersh agrees

In his new book, Chain of Command, Sy Hersh makes the following observation:
""There are many who believe George Bush is a liar, a President who knowingly and deliberately twists facts for political gain. But lying would indicate an understanding of what is desired, what is possible, and how best to get there. A more plausible explanation is that words have no meaning for this President beyond the immediate moment, and so he believes that his mere utterance of the phrases makes them real. It is a terrifying possibility."

The following is what I posted on May 28th of this year.

After speculating some more about his mental state, I think he's one of
perhaps many people whose brains do not recognize the relationship
between cause and effect. They know that things happen, but they cannot
figure out why. Perhaps because their brain doesn't keep track of the
sequence of events.

The psychiatric community refers to it as pre-frontal lobe syndrome and
the speculation is that it's a consequence of some physical insult or
injury of apparent insignificance. However, I'm beginning to think that,
given the large number of people who seem to have it, it may well be a
normal genetic variant. Sort of like people having musical talent or
not.

Pre-frontal lobe syndrome is often mis-diagnosed as borderline
personality disorder or even schizophrenia because the people who suffer
from not being able to recognize the relationship between their acts and
the consequences they experience, tend to react to any effort to teach
them with punishment or restrictions as if they were attacked.
All their behaviors are in the moment, prompted by their immediate
environment.

Because of that, they are actually quite easy to handle or manipulate
because they mirror the behavior of those around them. So, when people
are nice to them, they respond in kind. This mirroring behavior also contributes to the behavior not being recognized as such because most people like for others to follow their lead and to repeat what they've told them. That's interpreted as "being
supportive."

Problems only arise when there's no follow-through, in
terms of action, to the apparent agreeement. The lack of follow-through
is, however, to be expected since the person doesn't even know that
there's supposed to be a consequence to his agreement.
In a clinical environment, individuals with this syndrome are a source
of much frustration because their mirroring conversation with the
treatment staff gives the impression that they are making progress and,
as soon as they are separated from the staff, the behavior reverts to
mirroring the behavior of other patients, many with much worse problems.
This mirroring behavior may also give the impression of empathy. But
because there is no cause/effect realization, the impression is empty.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we speculated that what we were
considering was narcicism. But I don't think that's right because
Narcisus, although he fell in love with his image, i.e. himself, the
inability to recognize the relationship between cause and effect also
makes it unlikely that the individual can recognize that his interest in
himself has or has not been met. I'm not sure there even is a self.
Which would make sense, for example, of the shrub's apparent
astonishment at the conditions of being president--not having to answer
any questions. That's probably important because it's something he's
never been able to do.

He doesn't answer questions at news conferences not because he doesn't
want to, but because he doesn't know how. Sometimes his brain latches on
to a particular word it recognizes and then it produces a number of
related words that have been stored together with it and which may or
may not make sense in the present situation.

I think the reason the shrub has nicknames for people is because he
doesn't recognize them as individuals and he can't remember their names.
What he can do is repeat what he's been told, as long as the speech
isn't too long. The reason he often stumbles in his speeches is because
he's not actually reading. He's reciting from memory. Probably would
have made a good movie actor who has to be able to repeat the same line
over and over, without much change in inflection, as long as the "takes"
are not too lengthy.

If you look at the "Remind Us" video, you'll see what I mean about his
ability to say the same thing over and over again. He really got hooked
on that "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction" line.

You know, once you've had an experience, there's a temptation to see the
same patterns again and again and it take a real act of will to view a
new situation objectively. On the other hand, this effort to be
objective may actually blind you to recognizing what you've seen before
as what you saw before.

I had charge as a Guardian ad Litem of a little girl in state custody
for ten years. Because she was in state custody, there was an effort to
address her "problems" with behavior in one institutional setting after
another. As a result I got to be real familiar with various "treatment"
programs and because she had no family, even got to participate in some
"family counselling" sessions that were part of one of the programs.
Anyway, absolutely nothing worked. None of the medications and none of
the restrictive environments. The odd thing was that in the eight years
it took me to catch on, she never ever misbehaved in my presence. That
is, she responded to me just as I treated her. (This, by the way,
annoyed her care-takers because she was often "abusive" with them. They
didn't like my questioning the ability of a patient to be abusive to a
person in authority either).

Long story short, it finally occurred to us (me and child psychiatrist
and psychologist) that perhaps a really supportive environment where all
her behavior was positively directed might do the trick--i.e. let her be
discharged from involuntary confinement when she turned eighteen and the
state could no longer hold her unless they could prove she was a danger
to herself or others. And it worked. Even in a State Mental Hospital
with few resources, she was able to learn to care for herself by rote
and to be peacable long enough to earn her release. That is, when she
was treated kindly, she responded well. You may say, duh. But that's not
how our society is increasingly organized. People tend to be punished
for missteps, rather than rewarded for being nice. Nice is
expected--except of course from the wardens.

Those who are treated well function OK. Those who suffer abuse at an
early age are likely to turn to what we call crime--to become aggressive
when frustrated or punished and to take what they want whenever they
want it.

Since it's quite possible for such people to function in an authoritarian
society, it seems quite reasonable to suggest that this "incapacity"
represents a normal genetic variant.
The mistake lies in trying to make people do things they can't; like
ride a bike when they lack the sense of balance required, or the
capacity to anticipate that if they ride down a steep incline at full
speed, they're likely to fall. Having fallen off a bike many times
myself, I am pretty sure that the Shrub's injuries to his face are the
result of going down hill too fast and then trying to come to a sudden
halt.

If I am correct and there are a lot of people like that out there,
making fun of him is not going to persuade them to vote against him. It
may well be that people recognize themselves in him. Can't figure out
why he should be made fun of since their loved ones have the same
problem and are such good people, in the sense of doing everything they
are told.
He should be rewarded for doing what his mommy and his advisers tell
him.

Election Review

For those who might have missed it, the recount in Ohio is going forward
and the votes in Florida are being looked at closely.

Cobb & co have collected the necessary funds to get started, but still
need $20,000 to meet their initial budget.  Go to
http://www.votecobb.org/    to contribute or get otherwise involved.

1400 more volunteers are needed to monitor the recount in Ohio,  If you have
friends or family nearby, get them to contact Holly at 319-337-7341.

Letters to the editor are still needed to break through the media
white-out of this issue.
For ideas on what to say, you can go to
http://www.votecobb.org/recount/be-the-media

In addition, Cobb & co are investigating New Mexico.  From where I sit,
a multipronged assault is definitely preferable to putting all our eggs
in one basket.  If there's one thing that needs to be accomplished, it's
to COUNT THE VOTES.

For a master list of links to evidence regarding the stealing of the
2004 election, go to shadowbox. Anything that interests you there would
make a good letter to a publication, since the major media aren't keen
on covering it yet.

http://shadowbox.i8.com/stolen.htm

http://www.letters.prinews.com

Lesson in Red and Blue

The summer that Joshua, our oldest grandchild, was seven,
he helped me build a stone dam across the brook below our house
in rural New Hampshire.  His main job was to crank the handle
of the kind of small winch known as a come-along in order to
keep the tension on steel chains running from a large tree to
slabs of granite, some as long as eight feet and weighing
several tons; my job was to use long steel levers to maneuver
the granite forward on rollers placed on sheets of plywood.
Each slab had to be moved about fifty or sixty feet from where
they had been dumped after being hauled from an old barn
foundation.
        At the start of our project, I explained to my young
helper the basic mechanical principles involved in our work.
A practical and pragmatic child, Joshua quickly articulated a
basic principle of his own: that the come-alongs with blue handles
were superior to the ones with red handles.
        Let me explain that the brand of come-alongs I use is
available in two models: the kind with a red handle has a twelve foot
long cable and a lifting capacity of one ton; the model with the
blue handle is idientical except that the cable passes around a
pulley, which means it can lift two tons but has only half the
effective pulling length.
        Joshua disliked using the come-alongs with red handles
because it took him twice as much effort as the ones with
blue handles.  But he understood why I wanted him to start
each new pull with that model: to take up the slack in the
hundred or so feet of heavy chain between the tree and the
stone being moved.  Once the chain was taut, I would attach a
blue-handled device to make his work easier.  Why couldn't he
use the blue-handled come-along to take up the slack?  He
could--but that would double the amount of time and effort
it would take for me to unwind the cable.
                        * * *
        Joshua will come of voting age in time for the 2012
election.  Perhaps by then our political system will be so polarized
that there will be only two levers in each voting booth: one with a
red handle, the other with a blue.  If that comes to pass, I
think he'll be able to apply the essential lesson he learned at the
age of seven: that if there's heavy lifting to be done, if
you really want to get things moving, it's better to pull the blue
handle.

Iraqi Dispatch

The Iraqi Resistance Spreads

November 16, 2004
The Ester Republic
www.esterrepublic.com

Dahr Jamail and Salam T.

While the US military says it now controls Fallujah and is simply
“mopping up” what is left of the Iraqi resistance, over 400 soldiers
wounded in the fighting have been flown out of Iraq to US air bases in
Germany.

As giant C-141 transport planes carrying wounded and maimed American
soldiers roar over the Iraqi desert, armed men carrying rocket propelled
grenades and kalashnikov machine guns roam freely in the streets of
Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq.

After the US military withdrew from inside Mosul, looters with
mattresses tied to the tops of cars and pushing desks in wheelbarrows
emptied the abandoned American base of its contents.

The horrendous situation afflicting civilians in Fallujah, which the
Iraqi Red Crescent Society refers to as a big disaster, didn’t seem to
concern a contractor from India who works supplying US bases in Iraq.

“One thing I feel is that in Fallujah, most of the insurgents are there
and nobody bothered to clear them off,” he said, speaking on condition
of anonymity, “So many innocent people were killed and no actions were
taken.” He then added, “So one way is good to clear those insurgents.”

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society states that scores of civilians have died
in Fallujah. Thousands of families remain trapped in the city with no
source of food, clean water or electricity. They report outbreaks of
cholera, as well as children bleeding to death because there are no
medical facilities left in the city. Red Crescent attempts to get relief
supplies through the US military cordon around the city have been nearly
impossible.

Due to the disaster in Fallujah, Muqtada al-Sadr has announced that his
followers will boycott the elections, scheduled for January. The Islamic
Party of Iraq is seriously considering boycotting them as well. Ayad
al-Azi, spokesman for the Islamic Party of Iraq, said, “The Americans
called for all the civilians to come to the mosques in Fallujah and they
detained all of the men and let the women and children go. We are
calling for all the people in the world to look at this humanitarian
disaster.” He added, “We are strongly considering withdrawing from the
elections.”

With over 30 US troops dead and what US-appointed Iraqi security advisor
Ayad Daoud claims are 1,000 insurgents killed in Fallujah, the goal of
their operation, capturing the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
has escaped them.

But Zarqawi isn’t the only one to have escaped, as up to 80 percent of
the resistance fighters in Fallujah may have left before the siege even
began.

“The Iraqi government announced there are fifteen cities not under their
control,” said Dafer al-Ani, an Iraqi political analyst, “Fallujah and
Samarra are just the start, and there is serious resistance all over
Iraq now outside of the government’s control. If we are talking about
Fallujah and Ramadi, they are using street fighting.”

He continued, “It’s not their [the Iraqi resistance] aim to keep
controlling the cities. They are just making the enemy lose as much as
possible and then pulling out to go to other cities. What everybody
knows is the resistance in Fallujah, they left before the siege of
Fallujah, and what they left was less than twenty percent of the
resistance there. And we can see what losses they caused for the
occupation forces around the country.”

The Iraqi resistance now controls large areas of Ramadi, Samarra,
Haditha, Baquba, Hiyt, Qaim, Latifiyah, Taji, Khaldiyah, and Baghdad,
along with fighting in the holy city of Kerbala.

Having been closed on November 7, Baghdad International Airport remains
closed indefinitely. Along with the borders of Syria and Jordan being
closed under US-appointed Ayad Allawi’s announcement of martial law in
Iraq, people here are now left with no exit from the liberated country.

A Letter

author unknown

A Letter

I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of the country -- the people who voted for George W. Bush. I am writing this letter because I don't think we know each other.

So I'll make an introduction. I am a New Yorker who voted for John Kerry.

I used to live in California, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. Kerry won in all three of those regions.

Maybe you want to know more about me. Or maybe not; maybe you think you know me already. You think I am some anti-American anarchist because I dislike George W. Bush. You think that I am immoral and anti-family because I support women's reproductive freedom and gay rights. You think that I am dangerous, and even evil, because I do not abide by your religious beliefs.

Maybe you are content to think that, to write me off as a "liberal" -- the dreaded "L" word -- and rejoice that your candidate has triumphed over evil, immoral, anti-American, anti-family people like me. But maybe you are still curious.

So here goes: this is who I am.

I am a New Yorker. I was here, in my apartment downtown, on September 11th. I watched the Towers burn from the roof of my building. I went inside so that I couldn't see them when they fell. I had friends who were inside. I have a friend who still has nightmares about watching people jump and fall from the Towers. He will never be the same. How many people like him do you know? People that can't sit in a restaurant without plotting an escape route, in case it blows up?

I am a worker. I work across the street from the Citigroup Center, which
the government told us is a "target" of terrorism. Later, we found out
they were relaying very old information, but it was already too late. They
had given me bad dreams again. The subway stop near my office was
crowded with bomb-sniffing dogs, policemen in heavy protective gear, soldiers.
Now, every time I enter or exit my office, all of my possessions are X-rayed to
make sure I don't have any weapons. How often are you stopped by a
soldier with a bomb-sniffing dog outside your office?

I am a neighbor. I have a neighbor who is a 9/11 widow. She has two children. My husband does odd jobs for her now, like building bookshelves.
Things her husband should do. He uses her husband's tools, and the two
little girls tell him, "Those are our daddy's tools." How many 9/11 widows and orphans do you know? How often do you fill in for their dead loved ones?

I am a taxpayer. I worked my butt off to get where I did, and so did my parents. My parents saved and borrowed and sent me to college. I worked my way through graduate school. I won a full tuition scholarship to law school. All for the privilege of working 2,600 hours last year. That works out to a 50 hour week, every week, without any vacation days at all. I get to work by 9 am and rarely leave before 9 pm. I eat dinner at my office much more often than I eat dinner at home. My husband and I paid over $70,000 in federal income tax last year. At some point in the future, we will have to pay much more -- once this country faces its deficit and the impossible burden of Social Security.

In fact, the areas of the country that supported Kerry -- New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts they are the financial centers of the nation. They are the tax base of this country. How much did you pay, Kansas? How much did you contribute to this government you support, Alabama? How much of this war in Iraq did you pay for?

I am a liberal. The funny part is, liberals have this reputation for living in Never-Neverland, being idealists, not being sensible.

But let me tell you how I see the world:

I see America as one nation in a world of nations. Therefore, I think we should try to get along with other nations.

I see that gay people exist. Therefore, I think they should be allowed to exist, and be treated the same as other people.

I see ways in which women are not allowed to control their own bodies. Therefore, I think we shouldgive women more control over their bodies.

I see that people have awful diseases. Therefore, I think we should enable scientists to try to cure them.

I see that we have a Constitution. Therefore, I think it should be upheld.

I see that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, I think that Iraq was not an imminent danger to me.

It seems so pragmatic to me.

How do you see the world?

Do you really think voting against gay marriage will keep people from being gay?
Would you really prefer that people continue to die from Parkinson's disease?

Do you really not care about the Constitutional rights of political detainees?

Would you really have supported the war if you knew the truth, or would you
Have wanted to spend more of our money on health care, job training, terrorism preparedness?

I am an American. I have an American flag flying outside my home. I love
my home more than anything. I love that I grew up right outside New York City. I first went to the Statue of Liberty with my 5th grade class, and my mom and dad took me to the Empire State Building when I was 8. I love taking the subway to Yankee Stadium. I loved living in Washington DC and going on dates to the Lincoln Memorial. It is because I love this country so much that I argue with my political opponents as much I do.

I am not safe. I never feel safe. My in-laws live in a small town in Ohio, and that town has received more federal funding, per capita, for terrorism preparedness than New York City has. I take subways and buses every day. I work in a skyscraper across the street from a "target." I have emergency supplies and a spare pair of sneakers in my desk, in case somethng happens while I'm at work.

Do you? How many times a month do you worry that your subway is going to blow up? When you hear sirens on the street, do you run to the window to make sure everything is okay? When you hear an airplane, do you flinch? Do you dread beautiful, blue-skied September days? I don't know a single New Yorker who doesn't spend the month of September on tip-toes, superstitiously praying for rain so we don't have to relive that beautiful, blue-skied day.

I am lonely. I feel that we, as a nation, have alienated all our friends and further provoked our enemies. I feel unprotected. Most of all I feel alienated from my fellow citizens, because I don't understand what you are thinking.

You voted for a man who started a war in Iraq for no reason, against the wishes of the entire world.

You voted for a man whose lack of foresight and inability to plan has led to massive insurgencies in Iraq, where weapons are disappearing into the hands of terrorists.

You voted for a man who let Osama Bin Laden escape into the hills of Afghanistan so that he could start that war in Iraq.

You voted for a man who doesn't want to let people love who they want to love; doesn't want to let doctors cure their patients; doesn't want to let women rule their destinies.

I don't understand why you voted for this man. For me, it is not enough that
He is personable; it is not enough that he seems like one of the guys.

Why did you vote for him?

Why did you elect a man that lied to us in order to convince us to go to war? (Ten years ago you were incensed when our president lied about his sex life; you thought it was an impeachable offense.)

Why did you elect a leader who thinks that strength cannot include diplomacy or international cooperaton?

Why did you elect a man who did nothing except run away and hide on September 11?

Most of all, I am terrified. I mean daily, I am afraid that I will not survive this. I am afraid that I will lose my husband, that I will never have children, that I will never grow old and watch the sunset in a backyard of my own. I am afraid that my career -- which should end with a triumphant and good-natured roast at a retirement party in 2035 -- will be cut short by an attack on me and my colleagues, as we sit sending emails and making phone calls one ordinary afternoon.

Is your life at stake? Are you terrified?

I don't think you are. I don't think you realize what you have done. And if anything happens to me or the people I love, I blame you.

I wanted you to know that.

Shame!

Troops -- Ashamed and Shaming

Dear Editor,
Whatever the rationale for the re-embedding of the press with the troops
assaulting the people of Iraq, what I want to know is why American soldiers
cover their faces with bandanas, like wild west bandits, and smother their
captives with "capture hoods."
If the soldiers were outfitted with dust masks, that would make sense,
since the uranium oxide particles they are breathing in are almost certain
to make them ill long after they come home. But those bandanas are surely
not standard-issue and can have only one purpose--to keep the troops from
being recognized by the American public.
Lest you think that individual soldiers and marines are protecting
themselves from being retaliated against, I think we can be pretty sure,
based on the evidence, that ALL the military personnel, native and foreign,
have become targets of retaliation. The Iraqis have no personal animus
against those they target with their IEDs. That's about the only thing
that makes this confrontation a war; there's nothing personal about it.
The capture hoods are another matter. Like the rolls of plastic body bags,
the hoods with which captives are disoriented and made to fear for their
lives ARE standard issue. Which leads me to the question, who comes up
with such inhumane and degrading behaviors? The policies which contenance
the use of suffocation to subdue a civilian population, one that is already
stressed to the breaking point, are simply disgusting and shameful. They
make me ashamed to be an American.

Special Report re:9/11

Special Report

A Conservative Christian Republican says listen to whistleblower Sibel D. Edmonds

By Karl W. B. Schwarz
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Download a .pdf file for printing.
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Click here to download a free copy.

November 20, 2004?The following is an open letter to Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General for the State of New York and William Casey, Chief Investigator for the Attorney General?s Office. In fact, this was hand delivered to Mr. Spitzer's office before it was published as was a three-part expose I have written titled Pop Goes the Bush Mythology Bubble. That three-part article will break soon and is in the hand of investigators at this time.

Sibel D. Edmonds was one of the many multilingual translators hired by our FBI to help track down terrorists and anticipate their next moves. At least, that was the plan and the purported "job description."

Once Sibel was working inside the FBI she uncovered something, tried to go public with it when Attorney General John Ashcroft and her FBI superiors would not, and the Bush-Cheney-Ashcroft team slapped a gag order on her so you could not hear what this lady has to say. What she has to say directly relates to 9-11 and it totally disputes the Bush Mythology they want Americans to believe.

So listen up, America. Here is what Sibel uncovered?she found "drug trafficking, money laundering, foreign names and American names directly involved in the financing of the 9-11 attacks on WTC (World Trade Center) and the Pentagon." It was not the Saudis, folks. Americans were involved and Bush does not want you to know that. That exposes the Bush Mythology as the lie that it is.

Some of the names on our list are also on the list that Sibel Edmonds knows and found inside the FBI. We came at the problem through telecom fraud, international securities fraud and kept finding trails that led to the Caspian Basin, Pakistan, and former BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce) scam artists. Some of you might remember BCCI and that many called it Bank of Crooks and Criminals International and did so for good cause.

There was something else "odd" about what Sibel Edmonds found. The facts did not surface out of counter-terrorism (Richard Clarke's group); they surfaced out of ongoing investigations by the FBI, some of which date back to 1998.

The following was sent to me and is appearing here with Si