Palast: Blacking Out Ballots Across America
[Palast wrote a version of this article for The Nation in May, but this one, published a month later, is much clearer, shorter and better written] One million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost! San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, June 20, 2004 by Greg Palast In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. Spoiled votes is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate. This year, it could get worse. These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round. How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost. While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers. Florida's Gadsden County has the highest percentage of black voters in the state -- and the highest spoilage rate. One in 8 votes cast there in 2000 was never counted. Many voters wrote in Al Gore. Optical reading machines rejected these because Al is a stray mark. By contrast, in neighboring Tallahassee, the capital, vote spoilage was nearly zip; every vote counted. The difference? In Tallahassee's white- majority county, voters placed their ballots directly into optical scanners. If they added a stray mark, they received another ballot with instructions to correct it. In other words, in the white county, make a mistake and get another ballot; in the black county, make a mistake, your ballot is tossed. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission looked into the smelly pile of spoiled ballots and concluded that, of the 179,855 ballots invalidated by Florida officials, 53 percent were cast by black voters. In Florida, a black citizen was 10 times as likely to have a vote rejected as a white voter. But let's not get smug about Florida's Jim Crow spoilage rate. Civil Rights Commissioner Christopher Edley, recently appointed dean of Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, took the Florida study nationwide. His team discovered the uncomfortable fact that Florida is typical of the nation. Philip Klinkner, the statistician working on the Edley investigations, concluded, It appears that about half of all ballots spoiled in the U.S.A. -- about 1 million votes -- were cast by nonwhite voters. This no count, as the Civil Rights Commission calls it, is no accident. In Florida, for example, I discovered that technicians had warned Gov. Jeb Bush's office well in advance of November 2000 of the racial bend in the vote- count procedures. Herein lies the problem. An apartheid vote-counting system is far from politically neutral. Given that more than 90 percent of the black electorate votes Democratic, had all the spoiled votes been tallied, Gore would have taken Florida in a walk, not to mention fattening his popular vote total nationwide. It's not surprising that the First Brother's team, informed of impending rejection of black ballots, looked away and whistled. The ballot-box blackout is not the monopoly of one party. Cook County, Ill., has one of the nation's worst spoilage rates. That's not surprising. Boss Daley's Democratic machine, now his son's, survives by systematic disenfranchisement of Chicago's black vote. How can we fix it? First, let's shed the convenient excuses for vote spoilage, such as a lack of voter education. One television network stated as fact that Florida's black voters, newly registered and lacking education, had difficulty with their ballots. In other words, blacks are too dumb to vote. This convenient racist excuse is dead wrong. After that disaster in Gadsden, Fla., public outcry forced the government to change that black county's procedures to match that of white counties. The result: near zero spoilage in the 2002 election. Ballot design, machines and procedure, says statistician Klinkner, control spoilage. In other words, the vote counters, not the voters, are to blame. Politicians who choose the type of ballot and the method of counting have long fine-tuned the spoilage rate to their liking. It is about to get worse. The ill-named Help America Vote Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, is pushing computerization of the ballot box. California decertified some of Diebold Corp.'s digital ballot boxes in response to fears that hackers could pick our next president. But the known danger of black-box voting is that computers, even with their software secure, are vulnerable to
Bush Appointee to Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee
President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee has not met for more than two years, during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval. The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialties, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination. Dr. Hager's views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as pro-life and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager is the author of As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now. The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing Women with case studies from Hager's practice. In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled Stress and the Woman's Body, he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family, Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient. Hager's mission is religiously motivated. He has an ardent interest in revoking approval for mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) as a safe and early form of medical abortion. Hagar recently assisted the Christian Medical Association in a citizen's petition which calls upon the FDA to revoke its approval of mifepristone in the name of women's health. Hager's desire to overturn mifepristone's approval on religious grounds rather than scientific merit would halt the development of mifepristone as a treatment for numerous medical conditions disproportionately affecting women, including breast cancer, uterine cancer, uterine fibroid tumors, psychotic depression, bipolar depression and Cushing's syndrome. Women rely on the FDA to ensure their access to safe and effective drugs for reproductive health care including products that prevent pregnancy. For some women, such as those with certain types of diabetes and those undergoing treatment for cancer, pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. We are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives or to preserve and promote women's health. Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less. -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
McJobs
LA Times, August 9, 2004 THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE Jobs Grow, Optimism Shrinks in Wisconsin Displaced workers find new employment, but they're earning less in a service economy. By Warren Vieth, Times Staff Writer GREEN BAY, Wis. For several months, the city known as Titletown for its football prowess has been earning recognition of a different sort. Green Bay was the nation's fifth-fastest-growing job market in June. The previous month, it tied Laredo, Texas, for first place. But Steve Anderson sees little to celebrate. Supposedly there's a whole mess of new jobs being created, but they're not jobs we can live with, said Anderson, a 50-year-old factory worker whose career in manufacturing will come to an end today. Look at this, he said, leafing through a stack of recent job postings. They're paying $9 an hour. Five years ago, it would have paid maybe $18. This one is paying $12. Here's one for $8.75. These are the great new jobs that are opening up in Green Bay. Anderson's frustration reflects a characteristic of the current recovery. Yes, the U.S. economy is creating new jobs. But to some of the workers who have been displaced during the downturn of the last three years, the new jobs look a lot worse than their old jobs. Since December, Wisconsin has recovered all of the jobs it lost over the previous three years, turning a 76,000-job deficit into a net gain of 700. But not all jobs are created equal. Although the lion's share of Wisconsin's losses were in the high-paying manufacturing sector, most of the gains have been in service industries with widely varying pay scales, some quite low. In effect, the state has been swapping well-paying factory jobs for positions in restaurants, hotels, casinos, hospitals, banks, insurance firms and temp agencies. The tectonic shifts within Wisconsin's labor force help explain why some workers are still feeling grumpy, despite six months of job growth. In manufacturing-intensive swing states such as Wisconsin, where George W. Bush trailed Al Gore by a mere 5,708 votes in 2000, the issue could pack a punch in this year's presidential race. The pain and suffering is a little more acute here, said Dennis K. Winters, vice president of NorthStar Economics in Madison, the state capital. Nationwide, employers have added 1.5 million jobs since last August, restoring more than half of the 2.6 million lost during the first 2 1/2 years of President's Bush's term. But new Labor Department figures released Friday called into question the strength of the recovery and returned job creation to the forefront of the election debate. Employment growth slowed to an anemic 32,000 new payroll positions in July, and June's gain was revised down to 78,000 far short of the 295,000 average of the previous three months. The new numbers also brought attention to the nagging question of job quality: As the nation struggles to recover from the longest employment slump since World War II, are the new jobs as good as the jobs that were lost? full: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-wisconsin9aug09,1,1714529.story?coll=la-home-headlines -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Iraq trade union on war
Iraqi trade union on war: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/222/1/32/ _ FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
Russia Will Train Iraqi Oil Workers With Eye on Future Deals
Two stories, one from CNSNews, onr from the Russian press. Russia Will Train Iraqi Oil Workers With Eye on Future Deals By Sergei Blagov CNSNews.com Correspondent July 28, 2004 Moscow (CNSNews.com) - Russia has begun providing assistance to Iraq's oil sector, hoping to revive its once-strong position there, even as the shadow of the oil-for-food program scandal continues to hang over the industry. A first group of Iraqi oil specialists has arrived in Western Siberia for training at facilities run by Russia's top oil company, LUKoil. The company said Tuesday it planned to train 100 Iraqi oil workers this year, and another 150 each year between 2005 and 2009. It also plans to provide $5-million dollars worth of humanitarian supplies in 2004-5 to assist the recovery of Iraq's oil sector. In a statement, the oil giant's president, Vagit Alekperov, said the arrival of the first group was an important step in dialogue with Iraq and a good start for future Russian oil projects in Iraq. Russia, which opposed the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein and has refused to send peacekeepers to help rebuild and secure Iraq, hopes to secure its decades' old oil investments in the country under the new government. In 1997, Hussein signed a 23-year, multi-billion-dollar contract with a LUKoil-led consortium to develop the West Qurna-2 oil fields, but canceled the deal in February 2003, just before the war. LUKoil insists that the mega-deal remains valid and hopes to be pumping crude in the country as early as next year. It signed a memorandum of understanding signed with the Iraqi Oil Ministry earlier this year dealing with rebuilding the industry and training Iraqi workers. At the same time, an understanding was reportedly reached over the West Qurna issue. During a visit to Moscow this week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Baghdad would carefully assess all of our previous agreements with Russian companies but also said there was a strong chance Russia would keep or secure new oil contracts. The two governments are to appoint representatives to check into all Russian contracts agreed under the previous regime, including those within the framework of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, Zebari said. The U.N. program is a sensitive issue in Russia because of allegations that Russian entities illegally benefited from a project that was designed to help ordinary Iraqis at a time the regime was targeted by international sanctions. Earlier this year, Iraqi media alleged that some 40 Russian companies and individuals, including entities linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Communist Party and the far-right Liberal Democratic Party, took part in an illegal kickback scheme. Russian officials and oil companies have denied the claims, which are the subject of a probe approved by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Russia was Iraq's largest supplier under the program. Of the $18.3 billion in oil-for-food contracts approved by the Security Council, some $4.2 billion went to Russia. Eleven Russian oil companies bought tens of million of barrels of oil from Iraq under the deal. Earlier this month, the Iraqi official heading the investigation into the scandal, Ihsan Karim, was killed in a bomb attack. Lukoil Hopes Training of Iraqi Oil Men Will Yield Contracts To Work Iraqi Fields Moscow Nezavisimaya Gazeta in Russian 28 Jul 04 p 2 [Report by Petr Orekhin: Road to Baghdad Goes by Way of Kogalym. Lukoil Hopes That Program To Train Iraqi Specialists Will Help It To Recover Oil Fields in That Country] The first Iraqi specialists who will undergo practical training at Lukoil enterprises arrived yesterday in the city of Kogalym in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. In this way the memorandum of mutual understanding and cooperation between Lukoil and the Iraqi Oil Ministry, which was signed in Baghdad in March of this year, has begun to be implemented. It is obvious that the company's main interest lies not in teaching the Iraqis something but in persuading the country's new leadership to leave Lukoil with the contracts to work a number of fields which were concluded under the [Saddam] Husayn regime. I regard the arrival of the first group of Iraqi oilmen at Lukoil for practical training as one more step in the development of our dialogue with the Iraqi side. I am sure that our cooperation in the humanitarian sphere marks a good start for Russian companies to begin implementing oil projects in Iraq, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov said. At present, however, the fate of these contracts is unknown. Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadban told RIA Novosti that all the contracts in the oil sphere concluded earlier by foreign companies with Iraq now are at the stage of being studied and prepared. This concerns Russian companies too. I hope that it (the decision on the contracts -- Nezavisimaya Gazeta) will be acceptable and will satisfy everyone, the Iraqi oil minister declared. The existing
Re: Venezuela rightists falter
for what it's worth, my copy of the FT this morning has an article in it saying convincing Chavez victory would be good for international oil companies. Someone in it is quoted as saying Mr Chavez is now seen as someone we can do business with. Which usually means he is seen as someone we're going to have to do business with whether we want to or not. Looks to me as if the CIA has had the same problem in Vene as it did in Iraq; too much encouragement that it will be really easy and the population is on our side by pale-skinned chaps from the city with Scottish surnames (no offence meant to our own Mr Naismith, btw). dd -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Perelman, Michael Sent: 08 August 2004 17:15 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Venezuela rightists falter With respect to this article, again, the polls here are supposed to be close. The Venezuela site says that they opposition polls show Chavez winning. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Continuing China fever
Today's Financial Times offers more dramatic evidence of how China has become the new beacon for Western-based multinationals. It describes the fierce struggle for dominance being waged over control of the lucrative China-US air cargo trade by FedEx, UPS, and European carriers like DHL --somewhat reminiscent of earlier competition over the sea trade lanes. The air cargo battle is being waged at both ends - in China, for customers and distribution hubs, and in the US, for landing rights. The article is another illustration of how from iconic multinationals such as General Motors, General Electric and Goldman Sachs, to specialists such as Home Depot or Avon, almost every significant chief executive has Chinese expansion plans at the top of his or her to-do list...lately the level of interest has begun to feel more like an obsession. The looming cloud on the horizon, of course, is the potential collapse of the US dollar, on which this booming export trade depends. But the parallel rapid development of the Chinese domestic market lends support to the view that if the 19th century belonged to Britain and the 20th century to the US, the 21st may well belong to China. Marv Gandall --- Midnight in Memphis, new dawn in China By Dan Roberts Financial Times August 9 2004 High over the Pacific Ocean, flight FX 24 from Shanghai to Memphis is one of the most closely monitored aircraft entering US airspace. Every night the Federal Express cargo jet is packed with 77 tonnes of digital cameras, mobile phones and other high-value electronics that make it the company's single largest source of revenue and a significant contributor to America's ballooning trade deficit. Until recently the top priority route for FedEx was its daily flight from Tokyo, which carries express packages from all over Asia. But as with most big US companies, FedEx's attention is increasingly focused on one market: China. Corporate America's interest in the world's most populous nation is nothing new - China's dramatic economic boom has aroused growing curiosity from US boardrooms for several years. But lately the level of interest has begun to feel more like an obsession. During Wall Street's last round of quarterly earnings announcements, few large companies got very far into their conference calls with analysts before the subject of China came up. From iconic multinationals such as General Motors, General Electric and Goldman Sachs, to specialists such as Home Depot or Avon, almost every significant chief executive has Chinese expansion plans at the top of his or her to-do list. As domestic US growth shows signs of slowing and Europe's recovery remains relatively subdued, business leaders in the world's largest economy are determined not to miss China's potential contribution to the bottom line. Rising profits from China play an essential part in many analysts' financial modelling for this year and next. There are plenty of potential problems. Many smaller companies still view China predominantly as a threat. European and Japanese multinationals are queueing to claim their share of the prize. And it is not yet clear how far Beijing may be prepared to welcome foreign competition for Chinese companies in some sectors. One way to take the pulse of corporate America's love affair with all things Chinese is to watch the elaborate mating game being played out by companies such as FedEx. Express cargo aircraft are the clipper ships of the modern age, carrying 2 per cent of international trade measured by volume but 50 per cent measured by value. In the early hours of a sticky Tennessee night more than 80 of these aircraft an hour descend into FedEx's global hub at Memphis, making it the busiest cargo airport in the world. A military-style command and control centre ensures that, no matter how bad the thunderstorms get over the Midwest, the valuable flights from Asia are always the last to be diverted or cancelled. But the express logistics industry is about more than just ferrying cargo back and forth. A global hub-and-spoke network is designed to link hundreds of towns and cities with an overnight communications infrastructure that keeps the world's just-in-time supply chain taut. In developed markets such as the US, the ability to guarantee overnight shipment of parts and finished goods has allowed companies to reduce average inventory levels by a fifth over the last decade and is thought to have played a significant role in improving productivity across the economy (see charts). It is for this reason, above all else, that FedEx and rivals such as United Parcel Service and DHL are paying so much attention to China. As it becomes the workshop of the world, teeming factories along the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas represent both the start of the world's supply chain and the source of some its biggest transport bottlenecks. Growing recognition of this fact has also helped to spark interest among Chinese government officials.
Re: McJobs
To prevent this email message from getting swept up by anoverzealous spam filter, please add our "From" address([EMAIL PROTECTED]) to your address book.August 6, 2004Jobs stink! Stocks crash! SELL now!Dear investorplace.com member,Today, the jobs number came out for July, and it was NOT pretty!The economy added just a paltry 32,000 jobs for the month,suggesting a "recovery" grinding to a standstill.So if you didn't take my words to heart last time I wrote to youabout the SHOCK headed for this schizoid market..you better doit now before it's TOO LATE!This latest jobs number scares traders to death for TWO reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that slow economic growth translatesinto weak consumer spending, which means a slowdown in corporateearnings.That's bad enough. But the second reason really puts the fear ofGod into them. This slowdown in growth and jobs creation couldsound the death knell for George W. Bush -- catapulting John Kerryinto the White House.And that's NOT something Wall Street is eager to see.Couple that with soaring energy costs...huge deficits...and a pileof other worries, it's going to get MUCH WORSE before it getsbetter.The nearly 100 widely-touted companies I name in my new sell-sidereport, "Get Out While You Can," have been banished to mediocrity --and in some cases, scuttled towards bankruptcy -- by fundamentalchanges they are powerless to do anything about.If you own any of them, SELL. If you don't, steer clear or you'lldeeply regret it. Read and print "Get Out While You Can" onlineimmediately, by accepting your risk-free trial subscription toChangeWave Investing here:http://investorplace.com/order/?pc=5EHC179Anyone who has read anything I've written -- or watched me on FoxNews Channel's "Bulls Bears" -- knows I love growth stocks in theright spaces. Like digital camera plays Lexar and SanDisk, which wecashed out for 82% and 120% gains, respectively. Or genericdrug-makers like Eon Labs -- sold for 161% gains.They know I love high yields for an extra measure of safety. Likeour Ballast Income stocks yielding 9%-11% (where we also havecapital gains of 15%-50%).And they also know I love to swing for the fences when I get a bigfat pitch right down the middle. Back in December 2002, I toldsubscribers that XM Satellite Radio would be "a 10-bagger winner ifyou keep your cost around $2." We recommended closing out this saleand redeploying the profits on April 2, 2004 -- with the stock priceat 30 bucks a share!!!BUT -- and this is absolutely critical -- this does NOT mean I'm araging bull on just any stock today. That, my friend, would make mea raving lunatic.Yes, I want you to get the full story on all our current defensiverecommendations on the buy side. And see how we're also investingvery selectively in just a few of the hottest growth stories of thenext nine to 12 months. Get full details online now:http://investorplace.com/order/?pc=5EHC179But whatever you do, don't miss our sell-side research, as well.AS YOU'LL SEE, this list of tortured souls cuts a broad swath acrossWall Street.Retail...pharmaceuticals...transportation...manufacturing...shipping...healthcare... communications...consumer cyclicals...homefurnishings...defense...paper goods...chemicals...and on and on.I guarantee you know the names. I'm willing to bet that most peoplewho read this message own a few.And worst of all, the players on Wall Street are still promotingthese dogs like they're full-blooded pedigrees instead of mutts withmange. Don't fall for their usual load of b.s. Get out, while thegetting's still good.Get your copy of "Get Out While You Can" online now:http://investorplace.com/order/?pc=5EHC179SIMPLY TRY ChangeWave Investing risk-free.
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
retry - first attempt seems to have been sent as attachment for some reason, sorry... mh [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/08/04 5:03 PM Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 03:04:28 -0400 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party The nomination of David Cobb as the Green Party presidential candidate in Milwaukee was due to a well organized campaign to turn a minority view in the Green Party into what appeared as a majority decision at the convention. 1. A grossly undemocratic process was used at the national convention of the US Green Party, as described in the article, Rigged Convention Divides Green Party, by Carol Miller and Forrest Hill (see www.greensfornader.net); 2 Each state Green Party should have the right to nominate candidates supported by a majority of its members because the results of the national Green Party Convention do not represent the views of a majority of Greens in California, indeed, they represent the views of a small minority; 4. The Democratic Party has devoted huge resources to harass canvassers, to keep Nader/Camejo off the ballot in California 6. Nader and Camejo are the only candidates supporting Green values that have a chance of getting in the national televised debates. ; i've indicated in previous posts that i'm not big green party person while also thinking that greens need to wean themselves from nader, what follows are pulp musings... above is smarmy, smelly stuff that has long left rotting carcasses of 'minor' parties across u.s. political landscape, not to mention turning-off folks outside of organization (assuming anyone notices) and making contribution to turnout decline/civic disengagement/withdrawal from public realm/whatever else likes of robert putnam and social capital types call non-participation (how about alienation and cynicism)... circumstance reminds of buchanan-hagelin/2000 reform party implosion which left rp with ballot status in about 1/3rd of states where it had previously qualified... re. reform party (at least one of them anyway), nader received 'endorsement' (not nomination) back in may by way of telephone conference call, 4-5 people had 'qualified' to have their 'candidacies' debated by national/state committee people - wonder how democratic process of choosing members of such committees is - for a couple of hours one evening, nader was 'overwhelming' choice although i don't recall any actual vote totals being released, other names were complete unknowns, reform party people chose nader because he offers opportunity for party to get attention that it otherwise would not get (of course, kind of pub that buchanan debacle produced i suppose they'd rather do without)... reform party line is absolutely irrevelevant in states where party has ballot status save two - florida and michigan (drum roll please - so-called 'battlegrounds'), media likely to pay attention to nader in fla and mich - 'spoiler', 'darth' nader, blah, blah, blah, this is pure instrumentalist politics of mainstream sort (that's less criticism than it is observation, btw) on nader's part and explains why his campaign was so concerned about flap *between* michigan reform parties that appeared as if it might result in his name being kept off reform line (don't know if matter has been resolved)... re. dems trying to keep nader off ballots, obviously disgusting (didn't someone long ago say something to effect that all political issues in u.s. wind up in court)... nader people might be of greater help to polity in general (of course, this is electoral campaign which, by definition, has narrow focus) by highlighting unequal/unjust ballot access procedures, state by state rules are clear violation of 14th admendment equal protection... re. miller and hill article cited above, they characterize primaries as 'will of voters', u.s. is only political democracy in which party nominees are chosen this way (and in this instance, winners were placeholding), primaries are one legacy of not-so progressive era, example of peudo-democratization, early 20th century 'reformers' who pushed primaries claimed they were giving ' power to the people' as new procedure would empower 'ordinary citizens' at expense of party bosses, what happened was that such bosses were largely supplanted by activists (who, of course, have always exercised more influence than 'ordinary' people because they participate and their views are more intense)... re. each state party nominating its own candidates, silliness of this for prez election should be obvious... re. nader/camejo ticket, how democratic is it for person at top of ticket to choose vp candidate (i realize that nader's candidacy is independent one but that actually serves to make my point), party conventions chose vp candidates until fdr in 1940s, today, prez nominees announce their choices and conventions accept them (btw: reform party endorsed nader, not nader/camaejo, as far i know)... re. prez debates, it is
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
---Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/08/04 5:03 PM Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 03:04:28 -0400 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party The nomination of David Cobb as the Green Party presidential candidate in Milwaukee was due to a well organized campaign to turn a minority view in the Green Party into what appeared as a majority decision at the convention. 1. A grossly undemocratic process was used at the national convention of the US Green Party, as described in the article, Rigged Convention Divides Green Party, by Carol Miller and Forrest Hill (see www.greensfornader.net); 2 Each state Green Party should have the right to nominate candidates supported by a majority of its members because the results of the national Green Party Convention do not represent the views of a majority of Greens in California, indeed, they represent the views of a small minority; 4. The Democratic Party has devoted huge resources to harass canvassers, to keep Nader/Camejo off the ballot in California 6. Nader and Camejo are the only candidates supporting Green values that have a chance of getting in the national televised debates. ; i've indicated in previous posts that i'm not big green party person while also thinking that greens need to wean themselves from nader, what follows are pulp musings... above is smarmy, smelly stuff that has long left rotting carcasses of 'minor' parties across u.s. political landscape, not to mention turning-off folks outside of organization (assuming anyone notices) and making contribution to turnout decline/civic disengagement/withdrawal from public realm/whatever else likes of robert putnam and social capital types call non-participation (how about alienation and cynicism)... circumstance reminds of buchanan-hagelin/2000 reform party implosion which left rp with ballot status in about 1/3rd of states where it had previously qualified... re. reform party (at least one of them anyway), nader received 'endorsement' (not nomination) back in may by way of telephone conference call, 4-5 people had 'qualified' to have their 'candidacies' debated by national/state committee people - wonder how democratic process of choosing members of such committees is - for a couple of hours one evening, nader was 'overwhelming' choice although i don't recall any actual vote totals being released, other names were complete unknowns, reform party people chose nader because he offers opportunity for party to get attention that it otherwise would not get (of course, kind of pub that buchanan debacle produced i suppose they'd rather do without)... reform party line is absolutely irrevelevant in states where party has ballot status save two - florida and michigan (drum roll please - so-called 'battlegrounds'), media likely to pay attention to nader in fla and mich - 'spoiler', 'darth' nader, blah, blah, blah, this is pure instrumentalist politics of mainstream sort (that's less criticism than it is observation, btw) on nader's part and explains why his campaign was so concerned about flap *between* michigan reform parties that appeared as if it might result in his name being kept off reform line (don't know if matter has been resolved)... re. dems trying to keep nader off ballots, obviously disgusting (didn't someone long ago say something to effect that all political issues in u.s. wind up in court)... nader people might be of greater help to polity in general (of course, this is electoral campaign which, by definition, has narrow focus) by highlighting unequal/unjust ballot access procedures, state by state rules are clear violation of 14th admendment equal protection... re. miller and hill article cited above, they characterize primaries as 'will of voters', u.s. is only political democracy in which party nominees are chosen this way (and in this instance, winners were placeholding), primaries are one legacy of not-so progressive era, example of peudo-democratization, early 20th century 'reformers' who pushed primaries claimed they were giving ' power to the people' as new procedure would empower 'ordinary citizens' at expense of party bosses, what happened was that such bosses were largely supplanted by activists (who, of course, have always exercised more influence than 'ordinary' people because they participate and their views are more intense)... re. each state party nominating its own candidates, silliness of this for prez election should be obvious... re. nader/camejo ticket, how democratic is it for person at top of ticket to choose vp candidate (i realize that nader's candidacy is
taxation without representation...
[NYTIMES] August 9, 2004 Immigrants Raise Call for Right to Be Voters By RACHEL L. SWARNS WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - For months, the would-be revolutionaries plotted strategy and lobbied local politicians here with the age-old plea, No taxation without representation! Last month, some of the unlikely insurgents - Ethiopian-born restaurateurs, travel agents and real estate developers in sober business suits - declared that victory finally seemed within reach. Five City Council members announced their support for a bill that would allow thousands of immigrants to vote in local elections here, placing the nation's capital among a handful of cities across the country in the forefront of efforts to offer voting rights to noncitizens. It will happen,'' said Tamrat Medhin, a civic activist from Ethiopia who lives here. Don't you believe that if people are working in the community and paying taxes, don't you agree that they deserve the opportunity to vote?'' Calling for democracy for all, immigrants are increasingly pressing for the right to vote in municipal elections. In Washington, the proposed bill, introduced in July, would allow permanent residents to vote for the mayor and members of the school board and City Council. In San Francisco, voters will decide in November whether to allow noncitizens - including illegal immigrants - to vote in school board elections. Efforts to expand the franchise to noncitizens are also bubbling up in New York, Connecticut and elsewhere. Several cities, including Chicago, and towns like Takoma Park, Md., already allow noncitizens to vote in municipal or school elections. But in most cities, voting remains a right reserved for citizens, and the prospects for the initiatives in Washington and San Francisco remain uncertain. The proposals have inspired fierce opposition from critics who say the laws would undermine the value of American citizenship and raise security concerns in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Washington's mayor, Anthony Williams, has expressed his support for extending voting rights to permanent residents, but has yet to garner a majority of supporters on the 13-member City Council. In San Francisco, critics have questioned whether the law would violate the state's Constitution. In this city, where Ethiopian restaurants and El Salvadoran travel agents dot many urban streets, advocates argue that permanent residents are paying taxes and fighting and dying for the United States as soldiers in Iraq while lacking a voice in local government. They describe the ban on immigrant voting as akin to the kind of taxation without representation that was a major cause of the American Revolution. They also note that the United States has a long history of allowing noncitizens to vote. Twenty-two states and federal territories at various times allowed noncitizens to vote - even as blacks and women were barred from the ballot box - in the 1800's and 1900's. Concerns about the radicalism of immigrants arriving from southern and Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led states to restrict such voting rights. By 1928, voting at every level had been restricted to United States citizens. Today, some argue, those rights should be restored to noncitizens. They're paying taxes, they're working, they're contributing to our prosperity,'' said Jim Graham, the councilman who introduced the bill here. And yet they're not able to exercise the franchise. This is part of our history. A lot of people don't know what the history of this nation is in terms of immigrant voting; they don't understand even that localities can determine this issue. It's a very healthy discussion.'' Critics counter that the proposed laws would make citizenship irrelevant and pledges of allegiance to the United States meaningless. It is a touchy political issue, particularly in an election year when many politicians across party lines are lobbying for support from Hispanic voters, and many politicians have tried to sidestep it altogether. Democrats have most often sponsored the initiatives, but some also oppose them. In Washington, where Congress has the right to override city laws, some Republicans said they would try to overturn the immigrant voting bill if it passed. Is it really too much to ask that American citizenship be a prerequisite for voting in American elections?'' Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, asked in a letter to members of Congress last month. One of the things that differentiates American citizenship from simple residency is the right to vote,'' said Mr. Tancredo, who rallied opposition to the bill. The passage of this measure would not only blur that distinction, it would erase it - allowing as many as 40,000 aliens in the District of Columbia to vote.'' In San Francisco, some critics have also argued that the proposals raise security concerns. Louise Renne, a former city attorney in San Francisco and a longtime critic of the
Re: What is the total wealth ?
You consume a bridge -- make use of it, wear it out just a bit -- when you cross it. Or stand on it. Or jump off it. What proportion of total GDP is consumable ? How much is liquid ? What proportion is in plant , equipment and bridges ? Just full of questions. CB
Re: Economics and law
CB: Another infamous case of this was the exploding Pinto of Ford. Thanks, CB. That was the 70s. May not apply to the original post I made, in the time frame... but same principle. Regardless... The notion that lives have worth based upon economic evaluation is hated amongst normal working North Americans. I think there is, in that, a chink in the armor that is worth a bit more than mere postings about the conditions in South America. It is not to diminish the rest of the world... more to recognize what is happening here. Here. Talk about your dialectical contradictions in the whole... Ken. -- I always assume that what is in the power of one man to do, is in the power of another. -- Herbert Osbourne Yardley
