************************************************** * RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST * * Volume IV, Issue #1,016 * Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 * Email Circulation 2,057 * * Published every non-holiday weekday * by the staff of Rational Review * * On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news * In cooperation with ISIL: htp://www.isil.org **************************************************
************************************************** * SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS * * THE WARRIOR'S WAY * Get fit FAST! * http://shannonstyle.com/warriors_way_guide.html * * MIDDLE AMERICA * The Third Revolution continues! * http://tinyurl.com/gl5od * * BIRD FLU: REAL OR JUST MORE HYPE? * Boost your immune system naturally! * http://www.shopnutronix.com/freetexas * * NEW LIBERTARIAN MANIFESTO -- BACK IN PRINT! * http://kopubco.com/nlm_trade.html * ************************************************** In The News: 0) Symposium: Handicapping the elections 1) Gamblers bet on Dems to take House 2) VA: Desperate Republicans turn violent 3) Iraq: Month opens with new killings, abductions 4) Afghan explosion kills two occupation troops 5) Border thugs get six years for bribes 6) TX: Mayor backs reducing land theft 7) Indictment: Conspiracy to import utility infielders 8) US Justice Department probing Sony unit 9) White House, Kerry exchange accusations 10) Bush cautious as North Korea agrees to resume nuclear talks 11) Rumsfeld OKs increase in Iraqi forces 12) PM orders lifting of joint US-Iraqi checkpoints 13) PA: Judge blocks town's Know-Nothing law 14) AWOL soldier surrenders at Fort Knox 15) UK: Call for boycott of medical database 16) Google defends China operations 17) "Hell House" in NYC 18) IN: Woman scares off burglar 19) TX: Homeowner shoots intruder 20) CA: Tenants want landlord to try their life 21) Rangel: Cheney an "SOB" 22) Money well spent? The city can't tell 23) AZ: Renzi-Simon race a challenge for voters 24) SCOTUS case: Are jury awards too high? 25) Audit faults US training of Iraqis Everybody Has An Opinion: 26) Dread 27) Legislatosaurus Rex? 28) Time for more democracy 29) Fight the illusion -- don't vote! 30) Polls that encourage and polls that terrify 31) The permanent war on payola 32) The mother of all lies 33) Snake oil and the midterm elections 34) Baghdad is under siege 35) Bush losing support of military 36) If you're against the Iraq war, take this quiz 37) Blood in the gutters 38) Dem pol's wife asks Sheehan not to protest 39) Hell is rising in Oaxaca 40) Slaves, serfs and taxpayers 41) Fear & voting in the USA 42) Raising the dead voter hoax 43) Soul man 44) Trying to take the "Goldwater" out of the Republicans 45) Government, business, beer and pot 46) Modesty for women comes with many definitions 47) Straying from a failed course 48) Number of federal subsidy programs is soaring 49) Ain't no lesser of two evils 50) Shortages, bloody shortages 51) Amnesty National 52) How W lost the right by waging the wrong war 53) Voting isn't enough 54) Where we went wrong 55) Halloween: The night kids discover economics 56) Butch Otter rides again 57) In for a scare 58) The thirteenth tipping point 59) What's the doughboy afraid of? 60) Even saviors aren't perfect See No Evil, Hear No Evil: 61) Freedom Rings, 11/06/06 62) Freedomain Radio #483 63) FMNN eRadio: Walking dead currency 64) Free Talk Live, 10/31/06 65) Reforming the European Common Agricultural Policy What's Up In The Freedom Movement: 66) Today's events WaYbAcK: 67) Hot night on Enewetok *************** * In The News *************** 0) Symposium: Handicapping the elections As you'll see in today's news section, professional gamblers are betting on the Democrats. In commentary, much of the attitude is "who cares" or even "don't vote." What do YOU think? Don't hold back! http://www.rationalreview.com/content/20010 ----- 1) Gamblers bet on Dems to take House Bloomberg "Gamblers are increasing their bets that Democrats will be redecorating the leadership offices in the U.S. House of Representatives next year. President George W. Bush tells Republican audiences to ignore polls that indicate Democrats may gain the 15 or more seats they need to take control of the House in the Nov. 7 elections. Some Democrats, he says, are 'already measuring the drapes for their new offices' and will be proven wrong. Gamblers are voting with their money. Recent betting on political future contracts at TradeSports.com, an online unit of the Dublin-based Trade Exchange Network Co., gives Democrats a 69 percent chance of winning the House. Democrats have a 29 percent chance of capturing the Senate and a 24 percent chance of gaining majorities in both chambers, based on wagers." (11/01/06) http://tinyurl.com/y449xu ----- 2) VA: Desperate Republicans turn violent Forbes "A campaign appearance by Sen. George Allen turned physical when a liberal blogger was wrestled to the ground after heckling the senator about his divorce and court records. ... Stark's comments Tuesday and the confrontation that followed were captured by WVIR-TV in Charlottesville. Three men, all wearing blue Allen lapel stickers, grabbed Stark, put him in a chokehold, dragged him backward and pushed him to the floor at one point outside a meeting room." (11/01/06) http://tinyurl.com/y99ps8 ----- 3) Iraq: Month opens with new killings, abductions Frankfort Times "More than 40 Shiites were abducted along a notoriously dangerous highway just north of Baghdad, police said Wednesday, and the death toll from a suicide bombing at a wedding party rose to 23, including nine children. At least eight other people were either found dead or slain in new attacks Wednesday, including one person killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad's central market, which wounded five others, police Lt. Ali Hassan said. The death toll in the market attack was likely to rise, he said." (11/01/06) http://tinyurl.com/twfx4 ----- 4) Afghan explosion kills two occupation troops MSNBC "A roadside bomb killed two NATO soldiers and wounded two others on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said. The roadside bomb struck the soldiers' vehicle in the province of Nuristan, NATO said. The two wounded soldiers were taken to a U.S. military facility in Asadabad in neighboring Kunar province. NATO did not release the nationalities of the soldiers, but U.S. troops are the primary NATO component in eastern Afghanistan." (10/31/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15493636/ ----- 5) Border thugs get six years for bribes Enid News & Eagle "Two former Border Patrol agents were sentenced Tuesday to more than six years each in prison for taking nearly $180,000 in bribes in exchange for releasing immigrant smugglers and illegal immigrants from federal custody. Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren released smugglers and their customers from jail while working on a prisoner transfer program with the Mexican government. They once released a prisoner in a Wal-Mart parking lot for a fee of $6,000, according to court documents." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y639bz ----- 6) TX: Mayor backs reducing land theft El Paso Times "The El Paso City Council voted to go forward with a controversial Downtown development plan Tuesday by the same 5-3 margin that has typified most of council's major decisions for the past year. ... In the next decade or so, the Downtown redevelopment calls for a combination of private and public [sic] investment [sic] that will bring in major retail stores, a Mexican-style mercado, an arena and new homes and apartments for thousands of new and relocated residents. More than 200 people packed the council chambers, as roughly equal numbers of supporters and opponents of the Downtown plan attended. Mayor John Cook, noting the sharp divisions on the council and in the city over the potential use of eminent domain to [steal] property for private development, said he would like to resolve that issue in the next stage of the redevelopment plan. 'I do believe we can have unanimity by removing eminent domain,' he said, explaining that he has asked the city attorney's office to draft an ordinance that would restrict the use of eminent domain to situations involving public improvements and 'truly blighted property.'" (11/01/06) http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_4583099 ----- 7) Indictment: Conspiracy to import utility infielders USA Today "A baseball agent who has represented Cuban defectors was indicted by a Miami grand jury on Tuesday for allegedly smuggling ballplayers and other Cuban nationals into the USA. Gustavo 'Gus' Dominguez, vice president of Total Sports International in Encino, Calif., is charged as part of a 53-count indictment related to two operations in 2004. Geoffrey Rodrigues, Robert Yosvany Hernandez, Ramon Batista and Guillermo Valdez, allegedly hired by Dominguez to transport the Cubans by speedboat to the USA, also were indicted. Dominguez has represented several Cuban defectors, including Andy Morales, who was signed by the New York Yankees and later the Boston Red Sox." (11/01/06) http://tinyurl.com/y957dd ----- 8) US Justice Department probing Sony unit USA Today "Sony said Tuesday the U.S. Department of Justice is probing its electronics unit as part of an industrywide investigation into sales of a particular type of memory chip. The news could spell more trouble for a company already stung by sinking profits, a global battery recall and product delays. The Japanese company received a subpoena from the Justice Department's antitrust division seeking information about Sony's static random access memory, or SRAM, business, company spokesman Atsuo Omagari said." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/smsnb ----- 9) White House, Kerry exchange accusations Monroe News Star "The White House and Sen. John Kerry traded their harshest accusations since the 2004 presidential race on Tuesday, with President Bush accusing the Democrat of troop-bashing and Kerry calling the president's men hacks who are 'willing to lie.' The war of words, tough even for this hard-fought campaign season, came after Kerry told a group of California students on Monday that those unable to navigate the country's education system 'get stuck in Iraq.'" (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yfl6mf ----- 10) Bush cautious as North Korea agrees to resume nuclear talks Topeka Capital-Journal "In a surprise turnabout, North Korea agreed Tuesday to return to six-nation disarmament talks just three weeks after rattling the world by conducting an atomic bomb test. The breakthrough came after pressure from China and a U.S. offer to discuss financial penalties already in place. President Bush cautiously welcomed the deal and thanked the Chinese for brokering it. But he said the agreement wouldn't sidetrack U.S. efforts to enforce sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council to punish Pyongyang for its Oct. 9 nuclear test." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/twvf5 ----- 11) Rumsfeld OKs increase in Iraqi forces Providence Journal "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to spend at least $1 billion to expand the size and accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. While the plan still must get final approval from the White House and the money would have to be approved by Congress, Rumsfeld's support underscores the Bush administration's effort to shift more of the burden of Iraq's security to that country's forces." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y794ut ----- 12) PM orders lifting of joint US-Iraqi checkpoints Independence Examiner "Exploiting GOP vulnerability in the Nov. 7 elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexed his political muscle Tuesday and won U.S. agreement to lift military blockades on Sadr City and another Shiite enclave where an American soldier was abducted. U.S. forces, who had set up the checkpoints in Baghdad last week as part of an unsuccessful search for the soldier, drove away in Humvees and armored personnel carriers at the 5 p.m. deadline set by al-Maliki. Iraqi troops, who had manned the checkpoints with the Americans, loaded coils of razor wire and red traffic cones onto pickup trucks." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/v54fp ----- 13) PA: Judge blocks town's Know-Nothing law CNN "A federal judge Tuesday temporarily barred Hazleton, Pennsylvania, from implementing a law designed to prevent illegal immigrants from living in the town. Judge James Munley of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania issued a temporary restraining order against Hazleton City Council, preventing it from enforcing its Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance. The measure has become a model for other U.S. towns that blame illegal immigrants for a range of social problems." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/vq3z2 ----- 14) AWOL soldier surrenders at Fort Knox Lebanon Reporter "A soldier who fled to Canada rather than accept a second tour in Iraq turned himself over to military authorities at Fort Knox on Tuesday, his attorney said. Kyle Snyder, a former combat engineer, left the U.S. in April 2005 while on leave. He said he worked as a welder and at a children's health clinic in Canada." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yxppxt ----- 15) UK: Call for boycott of medical database Guardian [UK] "Millions of personal medical records are to be uploaded regardless of patients' wishes to a central national database from where information can be made available to police and security services, the Guardian has learned. Details of mental illnesses, abortions, pregnancy, HIV status, drug-taking, or alcoholism may also be included, and there are no laws to prevent DNA profiles being added. The uploading is planned under Whitehall's bedevilled £12bn scheme to computerise the health service. After two years of confusion and delays, the system will start coming into effect in stages early next year. Though the government says the database will revolutionise management of the NHS, civil liberties critics are calling it 'data rape' and are urging Britons to boycott it." (11/01/06) http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,,1936403,00.html ----- 16) Google defends China operations Yahoo! News "Internet search leader Google and other major U.S. technology companies insisted Tuesday that their products benefit Chinese citizens despite government restrictions and warnings that online censorship is spreading. Providing some information is better than giving none at all, the companies said, but human rights groups warned that heavy filtering of Web content is increasing in developing countries -- with some using China as a model. China denied it censored Internet sites at all, saying criminal investigations are unrelated to freedom of expression." (10/31/06) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061031/ap_on_hi_te/internet_governance ----- 17) "Hell House" in NYC Newsweek "Worlds collided last month in Brooklyn. In a dark neighborhood of warehouses called DUMBO, in a theater usually reserved for edgy bands and performance artists, real actors performed, straight up and without irony, 'Hell House,' an evangelical Christian version of a haunted house. With a demon as their guide, visitors walked through a series of live tableaux, each one depicting a different way to stray from God. In one, a young woman commits suicide after being raped. In another, a gay man gets AIDS. At the end, audience members stand before Satan, who is horned and jubilant ('You think sin has no consequence!' he exults) -- and finally before Jesus Christ himself, who calls on them to repent and be saved. On a recent night, audience members looked stricken as they listened to this appeal. When invited to join the Lord in prayer, all remained silent." (for publication 11/06/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15463786/site/newsweek/ ----- 18) IN: Woman scares off burglar Muncie Star Press "A 41-year-old Muncie woman fired a gun at a man who had tried to break into her house, she told police. The thwarted burglary comes less than a week after another Muncie woman beat a suspected burglar with a cooking pot. The woman was asleep early Saturday morning in her home in the 1300 block of East Fifth Street when she heard noises and saw a figure outside her bedroom window, she told police. She went to her front door with her .38-caliber revolver and fired a shot in the direction of the burglar as he ran eastward from her home." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ygb8cw ----- 19) TX: Homeowner shoots intruder WOAJ News "Investigators want to know why a man who was shot and killed was in a family's home. It's the first deadly shooting in Gillespie county in ten years. Deputies say it appears 30-year-old Dan Speight broke into the homeowners garage. That homeowner woke up, walked up to Speight and asked what he was doing. The homeowner told deputies Speight didn't answer, but ran towards him. Investigators say the homeowner shot Speight twice." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ydbx9e ----- 20) CA: Tenants want landlord to try their life Los Angeles Times "First, the landlord yanked the pipes out of their sinks. The Jimenez sisters put buckets underneath to catch the water before it streamed onto the floor. Next, he stripped the facade from the outside of the building, exposing rotting boards and some gaping holes. He removed some windows, allowing cold air and sometimes pigeons into their rooms. Their phone lines were cut, and gas and water service sputtered off and on. But even as rats and cockroaches ran wild in the walls around them, the three sisters, who, with their families, have each have rented rooms in the building for two decades, decided to stay and fight for their homes. Last week, they joined other tenants in suing landlord Joon Lee, alleging that he is on an illegal campaign to replace them with tenants who will pay higher rents in the graceful but dilapidated old building near USC." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/svms3 ----- 21) Rangel: Cheney an "SOB" New York Post "Charles Rangel yesterday blasted Dick Cheney as a 'son of a bitch' after the vice president said the Harlem lawmaker would raise taxes and destroy the economy if Democrats take control of the House. The bitter war of words escalated to the point where the bombastic Rangel even questioned whether the tightly wound Cheney needed professional treatment -- and mocked him for accidentally shooting his hunting buddy ealier this year. Cheney fired the first shot when he predicted that Rangel -- who is poised to chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee if the Democrats seize the House next week -- wouldn't continue 'a single one' of President Bush's tax cuts." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yg2ans ----- 22) Money well spent? The city can't tell San Francisco Chronicle "Nearly three years after the election of a mayor who promised to change how San Francisco deals with homelessness, the number of people living on the street is down but the city is still unable to track in a meaningful way the performance of nonprofit groups it pays tens of millions of dollars a year to provide services. Since taking office in January 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom has put an end to welfare practices widely viewed as enabling chronic homelessness. He also started initiatives to reach out to and provide a way off the street for hundreds of homeless people." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y3dngo ----- 23) AZ: Renzi-Simon race a challenge for voters Arizona Republic "A week before they choose who will represent them in Congress, voters across rural Arizona face a challenge: sorting out ethical issues surrounding the two main candidates. On the Republican side, two-term incumbent Rep. Rick Renzi is the subject of an inquiry about conflict of interest. On the Democratic side, challenger Ellen Simon won't say why she routed a home sale through her husband, a move experts say likely was an impermissible effort to cut her income-tax obligations. The two are vying for the 1st Congressional District seat representing a territory that runs from north of the Grand Canyon to Casa Grande. Libertarian David Schlosser, the third candidate, is campaigning as an alternative for 'voters disgusted by the corrupting influence of money, politics and special interests.'" (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y5ygqv ----- 24) SCOTUS case: Are jury awards too high? Christian Science Monitor "Jesse Williams smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 45 years. Following his death in 1997 after being diagnosed with lung cancer, his wife, Mayola, sued the Philip Morris tobacco company seeking $100 million in punitive damages. The Oregon jury that heard her case rejected the $100 million request. Instead, it awarded her $79.5 million. Tuesday, the case arrives at the US Supreme Court where lawyers for Philip Morris are asking the justices to strike down the punitive damage award as constitutionally excessive and fundamentally unfair. The case, Philip Morris v. Mayola Williams, is being closely watched to see whether a majority of justices are willing to issue strict guidelines to identify when a punitive damage award is unconstitutionally excessive." (10/31/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1031/p03s03-usju.html ----- 25) Audit faults US training of Iraqis Boston Globe "Deteriorating security in Iraq and bureaucratic wrangling between the State Department and the Pentagon have undermined the US government's effort to train provincial governments, according to a report to Congress released yesterday by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The training, done by 'provincial reconstruction teams' of soldiers, aid workers, and diplomats, is meant to coach local authorities in Iraq on how to deliver basic services to their municipalities, and to take over duties from the US-led coalition, such as running elections and making decisions over local budgets. The teams were considered such a critical part of the Bush administration's strategy to build up the new Iraqi government that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presided over the inauguration of the first team in Mosul last November." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yzbeco ******************************************************************* * HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 11/01/06 * * Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 44,978 ... Max - 49,938 * (source: www.iraqbodycount.org) * * American Military Deaths in Iraq: 2,816 * (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/) ******************************************************************* **************************** * Everybody Has An Opinion **************************** 26) Dread Wolfesblog by Claire Wolfe "Numb. That's all I feel, writing this. Just plain numb. The bad news has come so steadily for the last decades and so fast and hard for the last five years that even an acute awareness eventually shuts down. How much bad news can you take before you just can't take it any more? Numb to the news -- which is uniformly not just bad but horrible. But under the surface numbness lies the dread. We tell ourselves that we're still okay. That, despite Bush's modern American Enabling Acts, well ... it's much better here than in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Because after all, no American president has decreed mass roundups of (white) Americans -- yet. No American president has conducted mass slaughter of (white) Americans -- yet. No American president has sent (non drug-using) millions to gulags -- yet. Yet, yet, yet. But what are we waiting for?" (10/31/06) http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002270.html ----- 27) Legislatosaurus Rex? [EMAIL PROTECTED] by Thomas L. Knapp "The latest polls I've seen show [Michael Badnarik and Bob Smither] in single digits (granted, the last Badnarik poll was awhile back). I think they'll do better than their polling numbers would predict, but I'm not convinced that a victory is in the offing. I hope they both prove me wrong. Either way, I believe we'll see a number of 'balance of power' showings in which the LP's candidate has a significant impact on outcome. Those may include US Senate candidates Frank Gilmour in Missouri and Bruce Guthrie in Washington. The more likely prospect for outright victory is that Libertarians will be elected to state legislatures in two or three states: New Hampshire, Vermont and, just possibly, Indiana." (10/31/06) http://knappster.blogspot.com/2006/10/legislatosaurus-rex.html ----- 28) Time for more democracy The Free Liberal by Carl S. Milsted, Jr. "Democracy does not scale up. A better solution is to scale government down. If we are to have true democracy, then the term 'local government' should be at a level much smaller than a city. For example, instead of having citywide zoning, each neighborhood could have its own zoning meetings. Let those who pay the price of having a busy store next door decide the zoning." (11/01/06) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002394.html ----- 29) Fight the illusion -- don't vote! Strike the Root by Robert L. Johnson "The criminals that take up space in Congress and the White House need people to vote. They need to keep the lie alive! Even though there is no room for real debate and free exchange of ideas in this country, they desperately need to keep the illusion going that they are the representatives of 'the people,' that they are doing 'the people's work.' Of course, in reality they're doing nothing more than promoting their own political careers, which requires they serve powerful special interest groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and giant corporations. This is why approximately 650,000 Iraqi civilians and almost 3,000 US troops have died in Iraq and why even though productivity, executive pay and corporate profits have climbed, real wages for working people have remained flat at best." (10/31/06) http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/johnson/johnson11.html ----- 30) Polls that encourage and polls that terrify Classically Liberal by "CLS" "The most recent polls in Virginia are good news unless you are a big government Republican. With one week before the election the race between former Reagan official Jim Webb, the Democrat, and George Allen, a big government Republican enamoured with George Bush has not just narrowed. It's been doing that for months. But the last poll says Webb now has a slight lead. ... Another poll, however, indicates some real dangers to civil liberties from Republicans. Zogby International asked Republicans, Democrats and independents whether they would support various measures in the 'war on terror.' Republicans were hard pressed to find anything they would not allow the government to do." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yhekry ----- 31) The permanent war on payola TCS Daily by Martin Fridson "It lies within the government's power to outlaw a market, but not ordinarily to abolish it. At most, the authorities can drive the nexus underground. The resource-allocation need that gave rise to the market will survive. Associated transactions will assume a form that disguises, but does not alter, their substance. In light of this foreseeable response, a recent New York Times report on circumvention of rules against payola -- record companies' purchase of radio airtime -- can hardly be called news." (11/01/06) http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=110106A ----- 32) The mother of all lies LewRockwell.Com by Michael Gaddy "Of all the lies that have been told by George W. Bush, including the multitude of lies that led to the aggressive invasion of Iraq that has become a full blown, out of control, civil war; nothing can compare with the one he told when he said recently, 'We are winning the war in Iraq.' To say this in the face of the huge number of casualties suffered by the US Military this month is beyond incredible. My sources tell me the only soil we control in Iraq is that on which our Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) set. The Insurgency forces control the towns and the countryside and are making life miserable even for those inside the Green Zone. The Sadr Brigade alone is now estimated to number over 100,000 and they are just one of the many militant forces active in Iraq. How long ago was it now that we were told the Insurgency was only a few diehards numbering less than 12,000?" (11/01/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/gaddy/gaddy26.html ----- 33) Snake oil and the midterm elections AntiWar.Com by Joshua Frank "So we are in the trenches of another election season, and if you peer closely you can see the explosions on the horizon. I've yet to be convinced the Democrats have the capacity to take back Congress, and to tell you the truth I don't really care if they do. Not only do they not have the ability to lead, they also do not possess the moral impetus to change the direction of this war if they are lucky enough to regain control. Indeed, they are just as responsible for the ruin in Iraq and back home as the Bushites." (11/01/06) http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9946 ----- 34) Baghdad is under siege Independent [UK] by Patrick Cockburn "Sunni insurgents have cut the roads linking the city to the rest of Iraq. The country is being partitioned as militiamen fight bloody battles for control of towns and villages north and south of the capital. As American and British political leaders argue over responsibility for the crisis in Iraq, the country has taken another lurch towards disintegration. Well-armed Sunni tribes now largely surround Baghdad and are fighting Shia militias to complete the encirclement." (11/01/06) http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1945769.ece ----- 35) Bush losing support of military Common Dreams by Bob Burnett "One of the most memorable Iraq war images was President Bush's May 1, 2003, speech from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. As Bush announced, 'Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,' framed by the banner, 'Mission Accomplished,' he was surrounded by hundreds of cheering troops. At the time, it would have been hard to predict that three years later major combat operations would not have ended, the mission would not be accomplished, and Bush would be losing the support of the military. How did George Bush manage to lose the backing of our armed forces, which at one time was highly supportive of his Administration?" (10/31/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1031-24.htm ----- 36) If you're against the Iraq war, take this quiz Common Dreams by Danny Schechter "Ok, class. No talking. Pencils up. All eyes on the exam. Here's the first multiple-choice question: The Iraq War is Bad Because: a. It is illegal, immoral, and criminal b. It has ended up killing and maiming millions of Iraqis we promised to free c. It has devastated a country and ignited world opinion against the United States and caused thousands of US casualties d. It has debased our media and turned much of it into a propaganda organ e. It was badly managed and poorly executed. If you survey world opinion, there would be a consensus on selecting A-D as a response. If you polled most Democratic politicians and mainstream journalists, you would find overwhelming support only for E -- 'the we screwed it up' thesis as the correct answer. " (10/31/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1031-29.htm ----- 37) Blood in the gutters Truthout by William Rivers Pitt "It is going to be an ugly week in American politics, to be sure. The scum will rise and the stink will flood the airwaves, and pundits will shake their heads in mock dismay even as they revel in the chance to report on noise instead of news. It will be bad, but it could be worse. We could be in Baghdad, where dirty campaigns tend to involve bombs filled with nails and metal fragments, where torture and mutilation are the surest form of persuasion, where democracy means voting to stay inside so as to avoid being shot or abducted, where the failures of this administration and its rubber-stamp Congress are written in the blood flowing down the gutters." (10/31/06) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/103106R.shtml ----- 38) Dem pol's wife asks Sheehan not to protest CounterPunch by Stephen Pearcy "When America's leading anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, got a phone call last week from Jan Brown, wife of Democratic Congressional candidate, Charles D. ('Charlie') Brown, the last thing in the world Cindy expected was a plea from Ms. Brown, 'mother-to-mother,' that Cindy stay away from a Sacramento anti-war protest. But that's exactly what she got. Fortunately for the hundreds of peace activists who showed up at the protest at 16th & Broadway in Sacramento to meet with Cindy, she rejected Ms. Brown's request, and the event went wonderfully." (10/31/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/pearcy10312006.html ----- 39) Hell is rising in Oaxaca CounterPunch by Ron Jacobs "When I lived in Washington state, some of my closest friends were from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. I have kept in touch with a few of them and they have kept me in touch with the rebellion unfolding in the streets of Oaxaca the past few months. After the escalation of the situation there on October 27, 2006, when paramilitary forces shot and killed four people (including Indymedia journalist Brad Will), I spoke with my friends David Abeles and Hilaria Cruz who helped me contact some of their people in Oaxaca city. Given the circumstances currently existing in the area and the uncertainty of the immediate future because of the military and police presence there, I felt that the best way to get firsthand information out to the wider world would be to conduct an email interview. The first interview is below. I hope to have another one ready in the next couple days." (11/01/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs11012006.html ----- 40) Slaves, serfs and taxpayers Strike the Root by Mark Davis "If you were a slave on a Roman estate or an Old South plantation and you got to choose who was given the power to control the fruits of your labor and tell you what to do and what not to do, would you be any less a slave? What if you were a serf on a French or German lord's manor and you got to choose who was given the power to control the fruits of your labor and tell you what to do and what not to do, would you be any less a serf? Is being a taxpayer really that much better of a deal?" (10/31/06) http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/davis/davis4.html ----- 41) Fear & voting in the USA In These Times by Susan J. Douglas "Driving through Oakland, Calif., I saw a movie marquee urging people to demand paper ballots from electronic voting machines so there's a record of their votes. In my classes I have been asking my students why they don't follow the news, and they say, 'Why bother -- it's all spin and you can't believe it.' As the news media finally begins to turn its attention to the congressional elections, we are getting a focus on the trees, but not the forest. ... But when you talk to a range of everyday people, it's the forest they're concerned about: Will our system of constitutional democracy survive?" [editor's note: Setting aside the common misnomer about "constitutional democracy" (once more, folks: it's supposed to be a "republic!"), Ms. Douglas is at least correct about the "forest" aspect - SAT] (10/31/06) http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2874/ ----- 42) Raising the dead voter hoax Tom Paine by Justin Levitt "Once again, it's late October, the time of year when wholesome communities across America enjoy some good-natured fictional fearmongering. Ghostly apparitions are everywhere, and everyone's chuckling. Of course, this is also election season -- and for the press, the connection is often irresistible. The dearly departed are alive and voting. Boo! ... A list of ostensible voters and a list of ostensible corpses are run through a computer program that spits out potential matches. Many thousands of entries are flagged. And voila: The horde of allegedly undead voters makes the front page. These undead voters, however, don't do well in daylight. Problems with matching from list to list often account for much of the alleged fraud. For example, statistics tell us that two individuals share the same name, even the same birthdate, with surprising frequency, so that two people -- one dead, one very much alive -- may be confused for each other." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y4dncr ----- 43) Soul man The American Prospect by Matthew Yglesias "Whatever our disagreements, I've always liked Andrew Sullivan as a writer, and have looked on his blog -- with its seamless blend of apparently random subject matter offered up as political commentary -- as an inspiration and a model for my own. (And, yes, he named one of his awards after me, so I'm biased.) What he offers, beyond the flair for good prose that keeps British pundits in high demand here in the colonies, is fundamentally a sensibility -- passionate but not dogmatic, always engaged yet open-minded. It's the rare sort of writer who'll do what Sullivan does at one point in his brand new tome, The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get it Back: name-check a book, and then cheerfully admit that 'it runs to 8,000 pages and I cannot claim to have made it through them.'" (10/31/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12177 ----- 44) Trying to take the "Goldwater" out of the Republicans Arizona Republic by E. J. Montini "It was deja Barry all over again. Last week, a few angry members of the Republican Party asked three West Valley mayors to resign from the GOP for having the gall to endorse Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in next week's election. One irritated party official was quoted as saying, 'We're letting the public know that if you are a Republican, you should stand by your party or remain silent.' The problem with that philosophy is that it's tough to create leaders from a group of followers. Which is maybe why the most famous Republican from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, wasn't the quiet type. ... Back in 1992 ... the conservative icon endorsed Democrat Karan English over Republican Doug Wead for a congressional seat. ... Goldwater explained his endorsement this way: 'I'll always support the best man or the best woman. I want what's best for Arizona.' Imagine that." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/wdgf4 ----- 45) Government, business, beer and pot Liberty For All by Donna Mancini "I am for lowering taxes for everyone on everything, and that includes the estate tax, which is double taxation. Taxes take money from the productive or private sector and transfer it to the government, which produces nothing and is thus a parasite. I am for de-regulating industry, and reducing the number of laws in this country, particularly 'victim-less crimes' and keeping the federal government out of anything that states or local governments can handle, and I am sure that we don't need the Pentagon to mess with our beer or liquor!" (10/31/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=347 ----- 46) Modesty for women comes with many definitions Tennessean by Saritha Prabhu "It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around. In some parts of the world, women made minor news recently for wanting to show skin; in others, they made news for wanting to cover up. Over in the U.K., Jack Straw, a top British official, found himself in a bit of controversy when he asked Muslim women in Britain to remove their veils. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., The New York Times reported that Halloween, in recent years, has gotten risque. Apparently, thousands of women -- and teenage girls -- have been buying ultra-sexy Halloween outfits, a trend that is deemed 'more strip club than storybook.' Predictably, when something could be seen as objectionable, it is often dressed up in feel-good semantics -- many of the women think that showing off their bodies is a mark of 'independence and security and confidence.' How much skin to show, how much to cover up, and related issues like female modesty and sexual purity are, of course, very relative, and mean different things to different groups of people." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ylu5ov ----- 47) Straying from a failed course Boston Globe by H.D.S. Greenway "Last week, President Bush decided to cut and run from staying the course. The Iraq message has shifted, even if little else has, and one felt a little sorry for Republican candidates who had been parroting 'stay the course' throughout the election campaign only to find that the party line has suddenly changed. Others, who have been trying to distance themselves from those toxic coattails, might find some solace in the president's last-minute, and somewhat desperate, attempt to defuse the Iraq issue in time for Nov. 7. To admit that the war is going badly, even to admit to a couple of mistakes, cannot have been easy for such an inflexible individual as Bush, who is unreceptive to what some in his administration sometimes derisively call reality." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/svsg9 ----- 48) Number of federal subsidy programs is soaring National Center for Policy Analysis by staff "The proliferation of special interest spending in the federal budget in recent years has created much waste and corruption. Politicians have helped special interests while helping themselves. But the main problem has not been that politicians have their hands in the cookie jar; it is that the cookie jar has grown so large, says Chris Edwards, director of Tax Policy Studies, Cato Institute." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/u8tnm ----- 49) Ain't no lesser of two evils Free Market News Network by Garry Reed "With elections upcoming (there are always elections upcoming) our inboxes ingest more fear-inflaming folderol like: How important are the upcoming elections? Extremely important! Below is a list of what we can expect if the liberals win.' 'THESE ELECTIONS ARE CRUCIAL!!!!' 'The strategy of the liberals is to get Values Voters so disgusted and discouraged that they will not vote.' Libertarians, especially the anarcho variety, wonder why anyone who truly has values would bother to vote at all. Between the Donkeycrats and the Grand Old Partyarchs there ain't no lesser of two evils." (10/31/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/47/6283/evils.asp?nid=6283&wid=47 ----- 50) Shortages, bloody shortages Ludwig von Mises Institute by Mihai Sarbu "It seems that here in Romania -- the home of Vlad Dracula -- our hospitals are running out of blood. The number of people volunteering to donate blood has declined steadily in recent years. Health-care professionals fear that joining the European Union will bring crisis-level blood shortages. Why? European regulations forbid any kind of remuneration for this service." (10/31/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2363 ----- 51) Amnesty National National Review "President Bush can lambaste the Democrats all he likes, but on the biggest issue where there is likely to be legislative action from a new Democratic Congress, Bush agrees with Nancy Pelosi and the liberal wing of the Democratic party. They all support 'cutting-and-running' from serious immigration enforcement. On immigration, it was only the House Republicans who stood athwart the Senate and a Bush-Democratic accord on what is effectively amnesty for illegal immigrants and insisted instead on tougher border enforcement. And there might be substantially fewer of these Republicans after Nov. 7." [editor's note: Lowry writes about this like it's a bad thing. The one good idea Bush has had, and the GOP is trying to use it against ... the Democrats! - TLK] (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ymfj6h ----- 52) How W lost the right by waging the wrong war Frontiers of Freedom by Chuck Muth "It's a given that Republicans have lost the confidence of conservatives over issue after issue; unfulfilled promise after unfulfilled promise. From spending to immigration; from expanding rather than eliminating the Department of (Mis)Education to the creation of the new prescription drug entitlement. But when you hear that conservative support for the war in Iraq is a major reason the GOP may lose control on Congress next week, you have to wonder if that's true or just left-wing media spin. Sadly, it's true." [editor's note: The "we lost the war because we weren't willing to be murderous enough" card is getting more and more play. It's not a winning card, but it's one that bitter-enders can hold on to so that they don't have to admit they were wrong from the beginning - TLK] (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ymzm3e ----- 53) Voting isn't enough AlterNet by Sean Gonsalves "It's fitting we turned the clocks back over the weekend, just days before Halloween, both of which point to the phrase for this week: poll tax. Turn back the clock to 1966. U.S. Supreme Court case Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. Virginia resident Annie Harper filed suit, arguing it was unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment for Virginia to require that voters pay a tax to cast a ballot -- poll taxes being one of several ways segregationists used to disenfranchise blacks in those days. The 6-3 majority opinion noted: 'a state violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth.' Last week, the new Supremes ruled that Arizona's new voter ID laws -- requiring photo Ids and proof of citizenship -- will stay in place for the November 7 elections." (10/31/06) http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/43721/ ----- 54) Where we went wrong FreedomWorks by Dick Armey "Somewhere along the road to a 'permanent majority,' the Republican Revolution of 1994 went off track. For several years, we had confidence in our convictions and trusted that the American people would reward our efforts. And they did. But today, my Republican friends in Congress stand on the precipice of an electoral rout. Even the best-case scenarios suggest wafer-thin majorities and a legislative agenda in disarray. With eight days before the election, House speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has already begun her transition planning." (10/30/06) http://tinyurl.com/yyqth6 ----- 55) Halloween: The night kids discover economics Foundation for Economic Education by Jim Peron "Tonight American kids will observe a tradition not widely celebrated in the rest of the world: Halloween. They will dress up as ghosts, witches, goblins, politicians, and other scary things, then go door to door greeting neighbors with 'Trick or treat!' Residents will drop candy in the bags the children are carrying. Regardless of anyone's intention, the tradition nicely demonstrates the creativity of free exchange." (10/31/06) http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=887 ----- 56) Butch Otter rides again Reason by David Weigel "Butch Otter is a study in contradictions. After Ron Paul of Texas, he's the most libertarian Republican in the entire caucus. Unlike Paul, he has libertarian victories on his legislative scorecard. In June 2003 he shocked the Bush administration by sponsoring an amendment to a funding bill that stripped out the money the FBI needed to conduct sneak-and-peek searches -- that is, raiding a target's home without issuing a notice to the target. It passed with 309 votes. In 2004 he fought hard to amend the PATRIOT Act to bar the government from searching bookstore and library records. The amendment almost passed, until Otter's own party leadership held the vote open for an extra 23 minutes to twist arms and get Republicans to vote against it. He was bitter about that vote. 'You win some, and some get stolen,' he told reporters. During three and a half decades in politics, Otter has had his decisions overruled by everyone from Idaho legislators (on obscenity laws they wanted to pass) to his fellow House Republicans (on medical marijuana they wanted to ban) to President Ronald Reagan (on the drinking age his administration wanted to raise). Now Otter is running for governor of Idaho." (11/06) http://www.reason.com/news/show/38382.html ----- 57) In for a scare The Weekly Standard by Irwin M. Stelzer "Next week at this time voters will troop to the polls to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 33 of the 100 senators, 36 of the 50 state governors, and hundreds of state, city, and local officials. Opinion polls suggest that the Republicans are in for a drubbing, due to a combination of unhappiness with the Bush team's conduct of the war in Iraq, its perceived incompetence in responding to hurricane Katrina, and a variety of scandals, sexual and financial. The administration quite naturally wants to change voters' focus to other matters, and has dusted off the old Clinton slogan, 'It's the economy, stupid.' ... The administration's problem remains: almost nothing it can say about the economy can distract voters from Iraq, which they seem to see as an unwinnable war being fought because squabbling Iraqis and their leaders just can't get a grip on the security problem." (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/yjcx2e ----- 58) The thirteenth tipping point Mother Jones by Julia Whitty "In 2004, John Schellnhuber, distinguished science adviser at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, identified 12 global-warming tipping points, any one of which, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden, catastrophic changes across the planet. Odds are you've never heard of most of these tipping points, even though your entire genetic legacy -- your children, your grandchildren, and beyond -- may survive or not depending on their status. ... what will it take to trigger what we might call the 13th tipping point: the shift in human perception from personal denial to personal responsibility? Without a 13th tipping point, we can't hope to avoid global mayhem. With it, we can attempt to put into action what we profess: that we actually care about our children's and grandchildren's futures." (11/06) http://tinyurl.com/ygwjby ----- 59) What's the doughboy afraid of? Competitive Enterprise Institute by Jeremy Lott "The success of Ben & Jerry's was in the fact that a couple of hippies decided to try their hands at brass knuckled capitalism and somehow managed to get in the best licks. When they didn't have enough for 30-second spots on late night television, they decided to buy up all the 10-second slots. And when Pillsbury strong armed a Ben & Jerry's distributor with an ultimatum -- they could sell Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry's, but not both -- the young upstarts refused to let that be the end of it." (10/27/06) http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05580.cfm ----- 60) Even saviors aren't perfect Liberty For All by Sean Haugh "In my last column, I wrote about the need to recognize that people are not perfect -- not perfectly good, nor perfectly bad -- in order to have a chance of understanding them. Just as we need to apply this principle to others, we also need to apply it to ourselves. Otherwise we run the risk of undermining our own good efforts, of becoming the problem even as we play a big role in the solution. Of course, very few people see themselves as perfectly bad, and those that do generally don't get out of the house, much less become active in politics." (written 04/07/02; posted 10/31/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=346 ******************************************************************* * RRND MEDIA SHELF -- Tchotchkes from today's edition * * The Conservative Soul, by Andrew Sullivan * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060188774/rationalrev08-20 * * Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. ******************************************************************* ***************************** * See No Evil, Hear No Evil ***************************** 61) Freedom Rings, 11/06/06 Freedom Rings Open line Monday -- the day before the election -- on Freedom Rings Radio with Kenneth John. 9-10 am Central on WRMN 1410 AM, Elgin, Illinois. Webcast available. [Live radio or stream] http://www.freedomrings.net/ ----- 62) Freedomain Radio #483 Freedomain Radio "Saving Souls from Bears: It's my callin' to stop the maulin' ;)" With host Stefan Molyneux. [MP3] (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/y4vs88 ----- 63) FMNN eRadio: Walking dead currency Free Market News Network "Euro Pacific Capital President Mr. Peter Schiff gives a Halloween analysis of the latest GDP numbers." [MP3 or stream] (10/31/06) http://www.fmnn.com/eRadioLaunch.asp?rid=809 ----- 64) Free Talk Live, 10/31/06 Free Talk Live "'Halloween Alternatives' / Evangelical 'Hell House' / Christians stealing holidays from Pagans / What are Pagans? / Top 20 Kid Costumes / Halloween dies in France / Sex offenders ordered to turn off their lights on Halloween / Top 20 Adult Costumes / Govt expanding abstinence program to twentysomethings! / Parents talking about sex with kids / Ghost Hunting Kooks / Caller who hangs out in graveyards recording stuff claims it's 'science!' / Randi Challenge / Black Cat Adoption Ban." [MP3] (10/31/06) http://ripple.radiotail.com/357/FTL2006-10-31.mp3 ----- 65) Reforming the European Common Agricultural Policy Cato Institute Cato daily podcast, featuring Patrick Messerlin. [MP3] (10/31/06) http://tinyurl.com/ycw6l8 ************************************* * What's Up In The Freedom Movement ************************************* 66) Today's events Freedom Movement Events Don't miss this week's secession conference in Vermont -- and essayists, remember that tomorrow is the deadline in the Mont Pelerin Society's competition. Check out our sidebar calendar for all your freedom movement events. Don't see YOUR event listed? Drop us a line at info at rationalreview.com. http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com *********** * WaYbAcK *********** 67) Hot night on Enewetok Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ********************************************************************** * RRND is through the valued support of our readers. Forward freely. * * To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: * http://www.rationalreview.com/news * * To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) * http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ********************************************************************** Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor Brad Spangler ....... Editor --------------------------------- Check out the New Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. 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