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TURN
ON
COMPUTER
//
TUNE IN TO
FREED SPIRIT OF INTERNET //
TAKE
OVER!
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// my moment of
the
week //
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was when i
was reading Animals and Psychedelics. the subject at hand
was how to explain what need was being satisfied by every living
creature’s habitual free choosing to consume a drug (for such,
increasingly, are the findings, from flies and reptiles to birds and
mammals) a ‘drug’ that, in almost every case, leaves them in a temporary
risk situation while under its influence. more radical
ethnobotanists now even consider the urge for inebriation to be a basic
drive like sex, food and so on. so why would all living things have
a risk-taking function?!
____________
STOP PRESS
Ohio
____________
SUN NOV 28
3:30pm @ Mt. Herman Baptist Church, 2283 Sunbury Rd, Columbus, Ohio
"We need to investigate, coordinate, litigate, recount and recuse," said Jackson.
Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb's demand for a recount
has been joined by Libertarian candidate Michael Badnar.
Act, and Circulate!
STOP PRESS
Rosy Rofe, former Queen of Clubs and “the Dancing Granny” to Britain’s Rave Generation, died, aged, 80, on Monday 22nd. Obituary in next ish.
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u cant understand the world without innerstanding yourself
UP! 213// nov 27 2004
la- la- la- lap-toppling da system!
u cant innerstand yourself without understanding the world
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UP!ROAR AND
UP!RISING!
WHEN THE KISSING
HAD TO STOP
contents
p.04 Do I support the troops? Of Course Not!!u cant understand the world without innerstanding yourself
UP! 213// nov 27 2004
la- la- la- lap-toppling da system!
u cant innerstand yourself without understanding the world
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UP!ROAR AND
UP!RISING!
WHEN THE KISSING
HAD TO STOP
contents
p.06 VOTERGATE "The Highest Crime In The History Of Planet Earth"
p.11 “WE HAVE TILL JANUARY 6 TO CHANGE PRESIDENTS”- local Democrats (in Ohio) haven’t been commenting on their low-flying suit. They’re just smiling quietly to themselves.
p.13 TOP 10 ELECTION QUESTIONS!
p.14 E-Voting - Aussies Do It Right “The only possible motive I can see for disabling some of the US system’s security features is to be able to rig elections."
p.17 LETTERS from UP! aheads - The Killing Of Van Gogh In Holland
p.21 The Intoxication Instinct - What is it about human nature that drives us to get out of our heads? The New Scientist, NOV 13, 04.
UP!
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VOTERGATE
a current of protest is a’building underground
which will burst any day into the public media
in an unstoppable tsunami of
social-political change throughout america
and the rest of the world
i’m finding it extremely hard to depattern from living in a ‘technically democratic’ society where, at least, i had the rationalisation that it was all those ignorance-maintained consumerist bourgeois idiots who kept voting these dangerous zealots into power. BUT NOW I NO LONGER HAVE THAT EXCUSE! THEY DIDN’T VOTE THEM INTO POWER!a current of protest is a’building underground
which will burst any day into the public media
in an unstoppable tsunami of
social-political change throughout america
and the rest of the world
as i watch political or even just social discussions in the media, my brain keeps repatterning itself to seeing some kinda fallujah chattering classes as the storm troopers of ‘Freedom’ bomm their way down the streets bringing ‘democracy’. who cares about election rigging in the ukraine. or fox hunting in britain, or free social medicine, if there has been, AS THERE HAS BEEN, a silken-gloved fascist takeover of the leading power’s democracy.
every day the protest and mounting evidence spreads wider - & higher up the social structure while the vast majority know absolutely NOTHING about it and think it’s all moved on. but increasingly, it’s not quite there yet but you get the sense, watching tv, that we’re living in some kind of soviet state whose charade is more evident to some of the public than to the professional interviewers.
certainly it mostly depends on whether you’re on-line or not, BUT ITS’ ALSO DEPENDENT ON HOW MUCH ATTENTION YOU’VE PAID TO THE DETAILS. some kinda Democratic Party bitching is one thing, just dirty hands calling dirty hands dirty. but, if you read in some detail what we’ve been reporting in the last 3 UP!s and again in this one, your eyes will be very quickly shocked open at the scale of what can only be called a Takeover.
then your question becomes: what can possibly be done about it?!
and here’s where it becomes reeeeally inneresting :) for as you read more and more of the detail, the scale and depth of the Fightback gradually dawns on you! this growing, soon colossal body of documentation and personal evidence, and the veritable profusion of legal challenges, complaints and legal appeals, seriously and professionally detailed and prepared, will NOT be a 2 week wonder which, when it finally starts surfacing in the overground media, can be parodied or scorned out of existence. there is far too much real evidence, too many human stories, too much documentation. don’t forget Kerry’s unspent $50 million, and don’t imagine he didn’t have a strong sense of what the republicans might be up to.
ok, if you don’t buy this, you will remember how badly wrong i called the election :) but if am right, i called the election right too, and my sense is that VOTERGATE, when it finally gets too big and official to contain, is a tornado that will thunder through political life like 1.000 watergates.
UP!
STOP PRESS:
GAO To Probe Vote Counting!"We Are Literally Receiving Additional Reports Every Minute"
The US Government Accountability Office has announced it will investigate how the vote was counted in the Nov. 2 election, with an eye toward answering persistent questions about voting irregularities in many states, including Ohio and Florida, which were crucial to President Bush's win.
The irregularities include machines failing to record votes accurately, as well as problems with the way officials counted provisional ballots, which were provided to voters whose names didn't appear on voting lists but who contended they were eligible to participate.
Congress' investigative agency cautioned, however, that it isn't authorised to take action if irregularities are found. Spokeswoman Susan Becker said the GAO was already planning to look at systemic issues related to the elections process investigation, and denied this was a direct response to a recent request by several Democratic members of the House to investigate. But, given the concern expressed by more than a dozen members of Congress and many voters, the GAO will look at some of the specific problems reported, among which were touch-screen voting machines that recorded votes for candidates the elector didn't pick, and also the distribution and allocation of voting machines, since there have been reports in Ohio of precincts not having enough machines.
“We are hopeful that GAO's non-partisan and expert analysis will get to the bottom of the flaws uncovered in the 2004 election" said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) on his website.
To aid the GAO's inquiry, the legislators will provide copies of specific incident reports their offices received, including more than 57,000 complaints that they have already provided to the House Judiciary Committee.
"We are literally receiving additional reports every minute," lawmakers said in their letter to the GAO.
[The Associated Press contributed to this story.]
<www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65830,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4>
FOLLOW UP! ACTION HERE’S A ONE CLICK PAGE WHERE YOU CAN SEND YOUR PERSONAL MESSAGE TO JOHN KERRY, THE DNC AND THE GAO, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. NOW’S THE TIME TO CRANK IT UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
http://www.thepen.us/e-fraud.html
PLEASE POST THIS LINK EVERYWHERE YOU CAN TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
UP!
REPUBLICAN CHALLENGES
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
BASED ON EXIT POLLS
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 from the New York Times
An international election observer mission - from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe - released a preliminary report on Monday declaring that the election did not meet democratic standards.
The observers' findings were seconded by Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Citing the disturbing fact that official results diverged sharply from a range of surveys of voters at polling places, Lugar said, "A concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse was enacted with either the leadership or cooperation of governmental authorities."
"FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS IN UKRAINE'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PROCESS SUBVERTED ITS LEGITIMACY" the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs declared in its preliminary report, citing "systematic intimidation, overt manipulation and blatant fraud" that were "designed to achieve a specific outcome irrespective of the will of the people." - New York Times
This reporter, Greg Palast, was unable to reach Senator Lugar regarding the inconsistency of official election results and exit polls in the USA; the intimidation of minority voters in Florida and Ohio; nor the failure to count two million ballots cast, half by African-American voters, in America's first post-democratic election held earlier this month.
Eastern bloc observers noted that balloting in Ohio, New Mexico and Florida did not meet Ukrainian standards, but applauded America's attempt to restore democratic institutions after the overthrow of elected government in 2000.
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfmPRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
BASED ON EXIT POLLS
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 from the New York Times
An international election observer mission - from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe - released a preliminary report on Monday declaring that the election did not meet democratic standards.
The observers' findings were seconded by Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Citing the disturbing fact that official results diverged sharply from a range of surveys of voters at polling places, Lugar said, "A concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse was enacted with either the leadership or cooperation of governmental authorities."
"FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS IN UKRAINE'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PROCESS SUBVERTED ITS LEGITIMACY" the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs declared in its preliminary report, citing "systematic intimidation, overt manipulation and blatant fraud" that were "designed to achieve a specific outcome irrespective of the will of the people." - New York Times
This reporter, Greg Palast, was unable to reach Senator Lugar regarding the inconsistency of official election results and exit polls in the USA; the intimidation of minority voters in Florida and Ohio; nor the failure to count two million ballots cast, half by African-American voters, in America's first post-democratic election held earlier this month.
Eastern bloc observers noted that balloting in Ohio, New Mexico and Florida did not meet Ukrainian standards, but applauded America's attempt to restore democratic institutions after the overthrow of elected government in 2000.
UP!
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TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (Fraser Clark) & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION
MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP *
* Ideas Per Paragraph
TO SUBSCRIBE, WRITE “I wanna get UP!” TO fraser@parallel-youniversity.com
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, HIT REPLY WITH REMOVE IN THE SUBJECT BOX
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TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (Fraser Clark) & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION
MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP *
* Ideas Per Paragraph
TO SUBSCRIBE, WRITE “I wanna get UP!” TO fraser@parallel-youniversity.com
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, HIT REPLY WITH REMOVE IN THE SUBJECT BOX
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THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME TO SAY IT:
the iraqi people
were better off
under wait for it
saddam hussein
up!the iraqi people
were better off
under wait for it
saddam hussein
Do I support the troops?
Of Course Not!!
by Jolly RogerOf Course Not!!
In their fight to bring freedom and democracy to the people of Iraq, or their fight to bring Iraqi oil to America, our military forces have committed some of the most horrible war crimes in history. Of course Nanking and Nazi Germany were worse, but these war episodes are remembered as the epitome of horror, in the hope they may never be repeated, not as a limit to stay within.
As for the Geneva Conventions, in our quest for "Iraqi freedom" we’ve scoffed at them, we’ve made ourselves hated by the rest of the world, and we’ve disgraced and dishonoured everything for which America was once proud to stand. We’ve committed countless war crimes, and to insure that the people of Iraq understood freedom we’ve unleashed on them some of the very chemical weapons we allegedly went there to prohibit. We dropped napalm, uranium, chemicals, committed wanton murder, brutal rapes, systematic torture of civilians, and judging from the few fotos from Abu Grahib, we seem to have enjoyed doing it.
Just one of our latest efforts at liberation involves using women and children as human shields to guard our tanks - hunks of ironmongery designed to protect the people inside and their ability to kill everyone outside. Is it not deep insanity we glimpse in the act of using a child to shield a tank?!
Regardless of how you feel about the war in Iraq, it’s no mistaken usage of terms when I say "we raped" and "we tortured." “We" share and finance a government "of the people, by the people, for the people." And, even despite the election having been stolen, "we," the American people, are responsible.
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No human on this planet escapes being born into a particular society and culture. If you were born in the US of A, you inherited certain responsibilities concerning freedom, justice, truth and decency, but you have so neglected your responsibility that it has put the entire planet, and everyone on it, in danger.
You’ve allowed an irresistible military machine to fall into the hands of a lunatic, and you’ve allowed the constitution which protects us from lunatics to be hijacked. I’m beginning to understand how the people of Germany supported the madness of Hitler, because I’m seeing it happen again. A population duped by propaganda, and afraid, unwilling, or too ignorant to question authority, has blindly pledged their loyalty to another megalomaniac who’s transforming the state into another military machine.
You Have Just Been Drafted!
We’ve become lazy, soft, pampered and weak, just when the planet needs us to be strong. We should hide our faces in shame. This country still belongs to the people who inhabit it, they need only step up and claim it - or they can stand idly by while a lunatic destroys the world. Do I support the troops? Of course not!! their ongoing war crimes will forever shame America. I owe no loyalty to a butcher of humans who was born within the same borders as I. Because I support what’s good in this world, I hope our troops get blown to pieces.
If you have a God, you have a duty to Him. If your spirituality’s more earthly bound, you have a duty to humanity. I beg all people to make a simple decision between good and evil, and act upon it.
Fighting for freedom and democracy is a noble cause which we should all support, but that battle isn’t taking place in Iraq. It’s happening (or not) in America, and, assuming you’ve maintained some shred of decency, you have just been drafted.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke.
[remix]
removingheads@yahoo.com
up!
ready for the next wars?!
The propaganda is pouring out of the well-oiled neocon machine. French, German and British agreements that confine Iran to the peaceful use of nuclear energy are in the way of the neoconservatives' intention to spread the war to Iran - and must be discredited.
On Nov. 20, Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, hysterically accused Europe of defending "Iran's ability to attain the wherewithal to destroy the Jewish state." Glick "exposes" France's efforts to prevent the outbreak of wider war in the Middle East as a trick: "France wishes only to box in the U.S. to the point that the Americans will not be able to continue to fight the war against terrorism."
The neoconservative Heritage Foundation promptly broadcast Glick's hysterical rants into the Republican noise machine, reviving talk radio calls for nuking France, "America's oldest enemy."
Three years ago, Ann Coulter was fired by National Review, a neocon publication, when she declared: "We should invade (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Today, such violent words are common parlance.
There is no evidence whatsoever in support of the claims the Bush administration is making about Iranian nukes. The purpose of these false claims is to create fear that will breach the public's opposition to a draft. The neocons are desperate for troops for their Middle Eastern War.
For a decade or longer, the neocons have been writing papers advocating a U.S.-Israeli conquest of the Middle East. A moronic president has given them their chance.
Anxious to get their war underway, the neocons launched their invasion before they had the necessary manpower for the task. Bogged down in Iraq, the neocons are desperate to widen the war before the American public has enough of the pointless carnage and forces a withdrawal.
Thus, before the Iraqi war is finished, the neocon propaganda machine is at work creating fear that the United States is in danger from Iranian nukes unless America pre-emptively attacks Iran.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But Americans are perfectly set up to be fooled twice. Right-wing talk radio has conservative patriots absolutely demanding to be fooled. Christian rapture propagandists have conservative congregations just waiting to be wafted up to heaven. The Republican, corporate, Jewish-owned media is with President Bush. Military types are determined to avenge the Vietnam loss by winning the war against Islam into which they have been conned.
Critics are dismissed as "enemies" who are "against us." Reason and common sense are not features of the Bush administration. It is all blind emotion, a replay of "The Triumph of the Will."
Paul Craig Roberts.
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20041122-091655-2195r.htm
UP!
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the UP! is a global edutainment round-up, broadcast weekly to =[13,301]=
Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age// Peace folks
recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity// Megatripolis Dance Dept
as "showing signs of life".
Since recipients forward it widely to their own lists and sites,
we conservatively estimate 30,000+ direct recipients.
A further 30,000 read it on the YOUniversity's site.
And, because of its 'mix' of 'specialist' & 'general' content,
it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide,
making an estimated total weekly readership of =[275,000+]=
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VOTERGATE
the UP! is a global edutainment round-up, broadcast weekly to =[13,301]=
Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age// Peace folks
recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity// Megatripolis Dance Dept
as "showing signs of life".
Since recipients forward it widely to their own lists and sites,
we conservatively estimate 30,000+ direct recipients.
A further 30,000 read it on the YOUniversity's site.
And, because of its 'mix' of 'specialist' & 'general' content,
it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide,
making an estimated total weekly readership of =[275,000+]=
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VOTERGATE
"The Highest Crime
In The History Of Planet Earth"
Michael Carmichael <mc@cosvam.com>In The History Of Planet Earth"
THIS IS NOT CONSPIRACY THEORY. THIS IS NOT HEARSAY. THERE IS EVIDENCE. THERE ARE WITNESSES. INVESTIGATIONS ARE UNDERWAY.
When actress Susan Sarandon appeared on the Bill Maher show, he asked her what the biggest issue we face as a nation is.
Her reply was "voter fraud."
The usually knowledgeable Maher had no idea what she was talking about. When he asked, she replied: "Something BIG is about to happen."
This is going to be hard to swallow at first. But if you're like most of us, once you start looking at the evidence, you'll scrape yourself off the ceiling, put your eyeballs back in their sockets, and you'll try to figure out what to do.
So here it is.
The highest crime in the history of our country took place on November 2nd. The evidence is now mounting (into a HUGE mountain) that the election was stolen. There is already a congressional investigation underway and a consumer investigation.
Electronic voting machines, manufactured by supporters of the Republican Party, were used to alter the will of the people. The internet message boards and chat rooms are bursting with talk about this. You can wait another couple days to hear about it in the mainstream media, or you can read on.
The election was stolen with not just one tactic, but with several.
KEY POINTS
"Black Box" Electronic Voting Machines: The key to it all was the use of electronic voting machines that produce no paper trail. These were manufactured mainly by the two companies ESS and Diebold. Both of these companies are big supporters of the Republican Party.
A bill was introduced in the House and Senate to outlaw these machines and require a paper printout of each vote so that they could be verified and/or recounted. The bill was stalled by the Republican Party, led by Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and not allowed to come to vote.
Shortly after the November 2nd election, countless stories of problems with the machines began to surface. Many people tried to vote for Kerry and said that when the final confirmation screen came up it said they voted for Bush. In one precinct in Ohio, 4,258 votes were given to Bush were there were only 638 registered voters.
Many more stories about the black box voting machines, their problems, and the investigation into their tampering are circulating.
blackboxvoting.org
http://blackboxvoting.org
Exit Polls: Exit polls were taken in every state. In states with verifiable paper trails for their ballots, the exit polls were virtually the same as the real results. However, in states where electronic voting machines were used, the exit polls were mysteriously very different from the final reported totals. You can view the exit poll data directly yourself with the link at the bottom of this email.
Unusual Results: In the areas where computers were used to cast votes or tally them, some very strange results have surfaced. Here is just one example. In Baker County, Florida, there are 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them registered Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans. The vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush. Are we supposed to believe that 5 out of every 7 registered Democrats voted for Bush???
This pattern repeats itself in many Florida counties. You can view all the raw data for every Florida County at the link at the bottom of this email
Shenanigans: In addition to the electronic voting machines, there was widespread voter intimidation and disenfranchisement on Election Day. In many democratic areas, people waited hours to vote, while Republicans "challenged" voters' rights to vote, forcing them to fill out a provisional ballot instead of a real ballot. The provisional ballots were not counted on Election Day and we may never know how many of them there were, or what rules will be used to qualify them. Flyers were sent to democratic areas with an array of false information on them. People were told their voting precinct had changed, that their voter registration was not valid, or that they would go to jail of they tried to vote. The list of shenanigans goes on and on. You can see some of the flyers that were sent out and read about more of the shenanigans at the link at the bottom of this email.
Investigations: This is not conspiracy theory. This is not hearsay. There is evidence. There are witnesses. There are investigations underway. Three Congressmen have sent a letter to the General Accountability Office requesting urgent action and an investigation. Ralph Nader is leading a consumer investigation into voter fraud countrywide, and has already filed an official challenge to the voting results in New Hampshire. You can read the letter to the GAO and more about Nader's efforts at the link below.
They’ll call us sore losers. They’ll have lawyers and computer experts too. They’ll refute the evidence. But truth is on our side and we will prevail.
What’s needed is for the information to get out to more people. The mainstream media will bury this until it's shoved down their throat. So please forward this email to your friends and family. If every person 3 three other people, everyone will know before the media decides to wake up.
Here is the link to the information, if you’d like to look into the details and become more aware of the biggest story about to break. These sites have good info:
<http://www.solarbus.org/>
<http://www.votewatch.us>
<http://www.votewatch.us/>
up!
All early Tuesday indicators predicted a Kerry landslide. Zogby International (which predicted the 2000 outcome more accurately than any national pollster) did exit polling which predicted a 100-electoral vote triumph for Kerry. He saw Kerry winning crucial Ohio by 4%.
Princeton professor Sam Wang, whose meta-analysis had shown the election to
be close in the week before the election, began coming up with dramatic numbers
for Kerry in the day before and day of the election. At noon EST on Monday, Nov.
1, he predicted a Kerry win by a 108-vote margin.
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/Story.asp?ID=4688
up!
Vote Count Challenge!
Barbara Buringa, Legal Secretary, Perkins Coie LLP.
BBuringa@perkinscoie.com
Kerry's considering un-conceding and having a recount. He’s asked people to send firsthand experiences of disenfranchisement to his brother's law office and his office is eagerly counting calls that are encouraging him to un-concede and ask for a recount!
If you have first hand experience of voter disenfranchisement (not just articles) contact his brother.
Kerry can still request a recount in Ohio (and he may have the best chance of winning with a recount there) and perhaps elsewhere! He has until they count the provisional ballots 11-15 days after counting the provisionals. (It doesn't matter if he'll have a hostile Congress to work with because even if he can't get much done as president at least he’ll prevent the havoc and destruction of 4 more years of GW in which our rights, environment, economy, social security, and our very lives are at stake!)
When I called they put me through to someone who asked for my state: they’re adding them up! Contact Kerry at: FOLLOW UP! ACTION
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax
and urge him to un-concede and do a recount in Ohio (and perhaps elsewhere)
If you have witnessed or experienced disenfranchisement you can contact his brother's law office- - they are collecting this information which will be vital in considering un-conceding at CKerry@Mintz.com
(Don't just email articles or they’ll be inundated with emails. They already know about the articles.)
FOLLOW UP! ACTION
If you’re in the Ohio area this group needs volunteers (don't need special skills)
www.neohioact.org/electionaudit
Please support the work of http://blackboxvoting.org - which is the only group uncovering hard evidence of fraud of the paperless electronic voting machines - with donations and/or volunteer work - they need to raise $50,000 to file freedom of info act requests as quickly as possible to pay for records and the fees some states charge for them. If you can't donate funds please donate time
http://www.eservicescorp.com/form.aspx?fID=912
E-mail to join the Cleanup Crew. (they need all types, from doing grunt work, to lawyers and programmers)
crew@blackboxvoting.org
Please also contribute to Votewatch at: FOLLOW UP! ACTION
<http://www.votewatch.org/>
They need $250,000 to do a professional statistical analysis of the election which can be used as hard evidence. This is an excellent organization that’s been conservative in its approach, using highly respected statisticians and developing trusted relationships with key media contacts. They are collecting and analysing data to determine if there was fraud in the election as seems to be indicated.
Some sites with voter fraud info:
<http://www.stolenelection2004.com/>
<http://pages.ivillage.com/americans4america/id17.html>
<http://radtimes.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/2004votefraud.html>
<http://legitgov.org/>
<http://democrats.com/>
UP!
“The Roots of Violence are Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, and Politics without principles” Mahatma Gandhi.
UP!
Motion To Impeach Blair Gets Go-Ahead
The parliamentary motion to impeach Tony Blair for "gross misconduct" over the war against Iraq will be published next Wednesday
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1354571,00.html
UP!
VOTERGATE
election rigging in ukraine the people arise and throw out the government.election rigging in the U.S…………………?
up!
UNSEATING REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH
A confusing item appeared in an obscure weekly paper in Westchester County, New York, last Wednesday, in which a reporter named Adam Stone wrote °A top-ranking official with Democratic Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign told North County News last week that, although unlikely, there is a recount effort being waged that could unseat Republican President George Bush.” Stone quotes Kerry spokesman David Wade as saying: “We have 17,000 lawyers working on this, and the grassroots accountability couldn’t be any higher - no (irregularity) will go unchecked. Period.” Gives a little context to Senator Kerry’s opaque mass e-mail and on-line video statement from Friday afternoon.
>> see next.
The Ohio newspaper coverage suggests that even the mainstream media is beginning to sit up and take notice that, whatever its merits, the investigation into the voting irregularities of November 2nd has moved from net gossip into legal and governmental action.
up!
You may have read Kerry’s indirectly released statement last week,
which we reproduce below. But unless you had previously read
our Inside The Election Fraud Battle piece,
you might think he’s not saying much.
Why does he go on about child care
when there’s been a silk gloved fascist takeover?!!
But if you read Inside The Election (UP!212 in our site archives)
you know that he WILL NOT question the election result publicly
until, like the good prosecutor he was, he has fully prepared the case.
In reading the following statement, therefore,
read the legalese between the lines :)
Dear ,which we reproduce below. But unless you had previously read
our Inside The Election Fraud Battle piece,
you might think he’s not saying much.
Why does he go on about child care
when there’s been a silk gloved fascist takeover?!!
But if you read Inside The Election (UP!212 in our site archives)
you know that he WILL NOT question the election result publicly
until, like the good prosecutor he was, he has fully prepared the case.
In reading the following statement, therefore,
read the legalese between the lines :)
I want to thank you personally for what you did in the election -- you rewrote the book on grassroots politics, taking control of campaigns away from big donors. No campaign will ever be the same.
You moved voters, helped hold George Bush accountable, and countered the attacks from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio.
And your efforts count now more than ever. Despite the words of cooperation and moderate sounding promises, this administration is planning a right wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply. Healthy debate and diverse opinion are being eliminated from the State Department and CIA, and the cabinet is being remade to rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security, and walk away from critical allies around the world.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted - and they will be counted - we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles -- it is a time to stand firm.
I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It's unacceptable in the United States that people still don't have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process.
I ask you to join me in this cause.
And we must fight not only against George Bush's extreme policies - we must also uphold our own values. This is why, on the first day Congress is in session next year, I will introduce a bill to provide every child in America with health insurance. And, with your help, that legislation will be accompanied by the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans. There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation. That's eight million reasons for us to stay together and fight for a new direction. It is a disgrace that in the wealthiest nation on earth, eight million children go without health insurance.
Normally, a member of the Senate will first approach other senators and ask them to co-sponsor a bill before it is introduced - instead, I am turning to you. Imagine the power of a bill co-sponsored by hundreds of thousands of Americans being presented on the floor of the United States Senate. You can make it happen. Sign our "Every Child Protected" pledge today and forward it to your family, friends, and neighbors:
This is the beginning of a second term effort to hold the Bush administration accountable and to stand up and fight for our principles and our values. They want you to disappear; they are counting on that. I'm confident you will prove them wrong, and you will rewrite history again.
Here is what I want you to know. I understand the strength, commitment, and passion that are at the core of what we built together - and I am determined to make our collective energy and organization a force to be reckoned with in the weeks and months ahead.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get back to work for our country.
Thank you,
John Kerry.
Paid for by Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.
Kerry-Edwards 2004, P.O. Box 34640, Washington DC, 20043, U.S.A.
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Hi Fraser,
I hope you're right about Kerry's strategy. Tonight his daughters were interviewed on CNN and mentioned that the vote count was still going on in Ohio. I agree with you that the majority voted for Kerry.
Peace from Los Angeles,
Nori, Los Angeles
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Researchers: Florida Vote Fishy
Electronic voting machines in Florida may have awarded George W. Bush up to 260,000 more votes than he should have received, according to statistical analysis conducted by University of California, Berkeley graduate students and a professor, who released a study on Thursday.
The analysis -- which hasn't been formally peer-reviewed, but was examined by 7 professors -- showed a discrepancy in the number of votes Bush received in counties that used the touch-screen machines and counties that used other types of voting equipment.
The researchers examined numerous variables that might have affected the vote outcome, including the number of voters, their median income, racial and age makeup and the change in voter turnout between the 2000 and 2004 elections. Using this information, they examined election results for the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the state in 1996, 2000 and 2004 to see how support for those candidates and parties measured over eight years in Florida's 67 counties.
They discovered that in the 15 counties using touch-screen voting systems, the number of votes granted to Bush exceeded the number of votes Bush should have received -- given all of the other variables -- while the number of votes that Bush received in counties using other types of voting equipment lined up perfectly with what the variables would have predicted for those counties.
The total number of excessive votes ranged between 130,000 and 260,000, depending on what kind of problem caused the excess votes. The counties most affected by the anomaly were heavily Democratic.
Sociology professor Michael Hout, who chairs the university's graduate Sociology and Demography group, said the chance for such a discrepancy to occur was less than 1 in 1,000.
The 3 counties where anomalies were most prevalent were Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade.
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“WE HAVE TILL JANUARY 6 TO CHANGE PRESIDENTS”
The local Democrats (in Ohio) haven’t been commenting on their low-flying suit. They’re just smiling quietly to themselves.
George Washington University Constitutional Law professor, Jonathan Turley, noted the election process “has one more major loopholeª than is generally known. It begins on December 7th, the date “when you essentially certify your electors” it gives a presumption to the legitimacy to your votes. And then, on the 13th, the electors actually vote.
“But those votes are not opened by Congress until January 6. Now, if there are controversies, such as some disclosure that a state actually went for Kerry (instead of Bush), there is the ability of members of Congress to challenge.” In other words, even after the December 13th Electoral College Vote, in the extremely unlikely scenario that a court overturns the Ohio count, or that the recount discovers 4,000 Gahanna-style machines that each recorded 4,000 votes too many for one candidate, there is still a mechanism to correct the error, honest or otherwise.
°It requires a written objection from one House member and one senator” Turley continues. Once that objection is raised, the joint meeting of the two houses is discontinued. °Then both Houses separate again and they vote by majority vote as to whether to accept the slate of electoral votes from that state.”
In these super-heated partisan times, it may seem like just another prospective process decided by majority rule instead of fact. But envision the far-fetched scenario of some dramatic, conclusive new result from Ohio turning up around, say, January 4th. What congressman or senator in his right mind would vote to seat the candidate who lost the popular vote in Ohio? We wouldn’t be talking about party loyalty any more we’d be talking about pure political self-interest here, and whenever in our history that critical mass has been achieved, it’s been every politician for himself.
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It is noteworthy that the announcement of a legal challenge made it into weekend editions of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Columbus Dispatch, the Associated Press wires, and other publications. The Columbus paper even mentioned something curious. “Earlier this week, the Ohio Democratic party announced it would join a lawsuit arguing that the state lacks clear rules for evaluating provisional ballots, a move the party said will keep its options open if problems with the ballots surface.”
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“AN INVESTIGATION IS WARRANTED”
Meantime, The Oakland Tribune not only devoted 17 paragraphs Friday to the UC Berkeley study on the voting curiosities in Florida, but actually expended considerable energy towards what we used to call “advancing the story.” “The UC Berkeley report has not been peer reviewed, but a reputable MIT political scientist succeeded in replicating the analysis Thursday at the request of the Oakland Tribune and The Associated Press. He said an investigation is warranted.”
In fact, he - MIT Arts and Social Sciences Dean Charles Stewart - said more than that. “There is an interesting pattern here that I hope someone looks into.” Stewart is part of the same Cal Tech/MIT Voting Project that had earlier issued a preliminary report suggesting that there was no evidence of significant voting irregularity in Florida. Dean Stewart added he didn’t necessarily buy the Berkeley conclusion - that the only variable that could explain the ‘excessive’ votes in Florida was poisoned touch-screen voting - and still thought there were other options, such as, in the words of The Tribune’s Ian Hoffman, “absentee voting or some quirk of election administration.”
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“I WISH THE ELECTION WAS OVER!”
On the ground in Florida, uncounted ballots continue to turn up in Pinellas County. Last Monday, an unmarked banker’s box with 268 absentee ballots was discovered “sitting in plain sight on an office floor, with papers and other boxes stacked on top of it,” according to The St. Petersburg Times. On Friday, the same paper reported that County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark found twelve more¡ “ten provisionals in a blue pouch at a loading dock, and two absentees in a box headed for a storage facility.” “I’m sick about this,” the paper quoted Clark, whose office also whiffed on 1400 absentee ballots on Election Day 2000, and counted another 600 twice. Asked by a reporter if the election is over, she replied “I certainly hope so.”
Write me at
KOlbermann@msnbc.com
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TOP 10 ELECTION QUESTIONS
1. Systematic Voting Machine Irregularities: The Diebold optical scanner voting machines used in 29 Florida counties gave wildly unlikely and unauditable results, with Bush winning huge margins in heavily Democratic areas. Republicans gained 128.45% over 2000 in counties using optical scan machines while Democrats had a ?1% loss.
2. Highly Irregular Intervention by Federal Authorities: Warren County Ohio accounted for a third of Bush’s statewide margin. The county emergency services coordinator prohibited outside observers from monitoring the counting, on the advice of the Federal Department of Homeland Security. Bush’s most important county in Ohio and the nation was the only one to do this.
3. Impossible Vote Totals: More votes were recorded than there are registered voters in six Florida counties. In Baker County Florida there are 12,887 registered voters, and 69.3% of them are registered Democrats and 24.3% are Republicans. Yet Kerry received only 2,180 votes to 7,738 for Bush, meaning that 5 out of 7 Democrats voted for Bush. In Franklin Ohio a machine reported an extra 3,893 votes for Bush. Local officials can neither explain how nor can they provide assurance that thousands of identical machines did not also malfunction.
4. Unfair Election Supervisors: Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, an aggressive Republican activist, saw to it that the polling place for Kenyon College had only two voting machines, causing some students to wait up to 9 hours to vote. This was true elsewhere as well.
5. Untrustworthy Vendors of Election Machinery: The two major vendors of electronic voting machines, ESS and Diebold, are the chief beneficiaries of the Help America Vote Act and are active Republican donors. The software in these machines is not open source, so its functioning cannot be independently verified, and the machines do not produce an auditable paper trail.
6. Unexplained Exit Poll Disparities: Exit polls in states that had verifiable paper trails were virtually identical to the real results, but in states where electronic voting machines were used the exit polls were very different than the total reported on the voting machines.
7. Unreliable Voting Machinery in Poor and Working Class Areas: Hispanic voters in New Mexico are five times as likely to have their vote “spoiled,” or set aside as an uncountable punch card ballot as New Mexico’s white voters. About 3% of votes cast are not recorded due to this.
8. Atypical Voting Changes from 2000 to 2004: Bush’s statewide total in Ohio declined from 2000 to 2004, and the overwhelming portion of his statewide margin (85%) came from just 9 counties, all of which showed improvement from 2000 to 2004. Bush won over 70% of the vote in just two of those counties in 2000 but won over 70% in all of them in 2004.
9. Uncounted Ballots: In Ohio 92,672 ballots did not register a vote when run through a counting machine and 155,000 people voted on provisional ballots.
10. Illegal Voter Suppression Activities: The Republican Party in Ohio and elsewhere distributed flyers with false information on polling places and eligibility.
rogerh@mail.opusnet.com
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“STACKED WITH BUSH TRUE BELIEVERS”
A quartet of companies control the U.S. vote count. Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and SAIC are all hard-wired into the Bush campaign and power structure. Diebold chief Walden O'Dell is a top Bush fund-raiser.
According to Infoshop.org, "At Diebold, the election division is run by Bob Urosevich. Bob's brother, Todd, is a top executive at 'rival' ES&S. The brothers were originally staked by Howard Ahmanson, a member of the Council For National Policy, a right-wing steering group stacked with Bush true believers. Ahmanson is also one of the bagmen behind the extremist Christian Reconstruction Movement, which advocates the theocratic takeover of American democracy." Sequoia is owned by a partner member of the Carlyle Group, which is believed to have dictated foreign policy in both Bush administrations and has employed former President Bush for years..
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orlandoweekly.com/news/Story.asp?ID=4688
“The only possible motive I can see
for disabling some of the US system’s security features
is to be able to rig elections."
for disabling some of the US system’s security features
is to be able to rig elections."
E-Voting - Aussies Do It Right
Australians designed a system 2 years ago that addressed and eased most of the concerns about Evoting: They chose to make the software running their system completely open to public scrutiny. Although a private Australian company designed the system, it was based on specifications set by independent election officials, who posted the code on the Internet for all to see and evaluate. What's more, it was accomplished from concept to product in 6 months. It went through a trial run in a state election in 2001.
Called eVACS, or Electronic Voting and Counting System, the system was created by a company called Software Improvements to run on Linux, an open-source operating system available on the Internet.
In 1999, the Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission put out a public call for e-vote proposals to see if an electronic option was viable. Over 15 proposals came in, but only one offered an open-source solution. After extensive consultation with academics at Australian National University, Software Improvements built the system.
Green said that going the open-source route was an obvious choice. "We'd been watching what had happened in America (in 2000), and we were wary of using proprietary software that no one was allowed to see," he said. "We were very keen for the whole process to be transparent so that everyone - particularly the political parties and the candidates, but also the world at large - could be satisfied that the software was actually doing what it was meant to be doing."
It took another year for changes in Australian law to allow electronic voting to go forward. Then in April 2001, Software Improvements contracted to build the system for the state's October election.
Software Improvement's Matt Quinn, the lead engineer on the product, said the commission called all the shots.
"They, as the customer, dictated requirements including security and functionality, (and they) were involved at every step of the development process, from requirements to testing," Quinn said. "They proofed every document we produced."
The commission posted drafts as well as the finished software code on the Internet for the public to review.
The reaction was very positive.
"The fact that the source code had been published really deflected criticism," Quinn said.
In addition to the public review, the commission hired an independent verification and validation company to audit the code, "specifically to prevent us, as a developer, from having any election-subverting code in there," Quinn said.
"We were concerned that it wouldn't be secure enough," said Green, the electoral commissioner. The audit was performed specifically to search for security weaknesses in the system, but Green says the researchers found none.
The state tested 80 machines in the election, distributed among 8 polling places throughout Canberra (the country's capital). A comparative manual count after the election showed that the system operated accurately.
The machines are not what Quinn would call high-tech. The voting terminal consists of a PC and offers ballots in 12 languages, including Serbian and Farsi. The system includes English audio for vision-impaired and illiterate voters.
The voter swipes a bar code over a reader that resets the machine for a new vote and calls up a ballot. Once a selection is made and reviewed, the voter swipes the bar code again to cast the vote. The bar code doesn't identify the voter; it simply authorises the voter to cast one ballot.
The terminals link to a server in each polling place through a secure local-area network so no votes are transmitted over the Internet or phone lines.
Quinn said the server writes two copies of the votes onto separate discs that are digitally signed and delivered independently to a central counting place. The digital signature is a 128-bit unique identifier generated from the voting data. If the data were changed in transit, the identifier would change too, raising red flags that something went wrong.
The machine does not include a voter-verifiable receipt, something critics of U.S. systems want added to machines and voting machine makers have resisted.
A voter-verifiable receipt is a printout from the machine, allowing the voter to check the vote before depositing the receipt into a secure ballot box at the polling station. It can be used as a paper audit trail in case of a recount.
Green said the commission rejected the printout feature to keep expenses down. The system cost $125,000 to develop and implement. The printouts would have increased that cost significantly, primarily to pay for personnel to manage and secure the receipts and make sure voters didn't walk off with them.
Quinn, however, thinks all e-voting systems should offer a receipt. "There's no reason voters should trust a system that doesn't have it, and they shouldn't be asked to," he said.
"Why on earth should (voters) have to trust me -- someone with a vested interest in the project's success?" he said. "A voter-verified audit trail is the only way to 'prove' the system's integrity to the vast majority of electors, who after all, own the democracy."
As for the costs of securing and storing such receipts, Quinn said, "Did anyone ever say that democracy was meant to be cheap?"
Quinn also believes that voting systems must use open-source software.
"The keystone of democracy is information," he said. "You have a big problem when people don't have enough information to make up their minds or, even worse, they have misleading information and make up their minds in a way that would be contrary to what they would decide if they had the full story.”
Quinn says he is "gob smacked" by what he sees happening among U.S. electronic voting machine makers, whom he says have too much control over the democratic process.
It has been widely reported that Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, one of the biggest U.S. voting-machine makers, purposely disabled some of the security features in its software. According to reports the move left a backdoor in the system through which someone could enter and manipulate data. In addition, Walden O'Dell, Diebold Election System's chief executive, is a leading fundraiser for the Republican Party.
"The only possible motive I can see for disabling some of the security mechanisms and features in their system is to be able to rig elections," Quinn said. "It is, at best, bad programming; at worst, the system has been designed to rig an election."
"I can't imagine what it must be like to be an American in the midst of this and watching what's going on," Quinn added. "Democracy is for the voters, not for the companies making the machines.... I would really like to think that when it finally seeps in to the collective American psyche that their sacred Democracy has been so blatantly abused, they will get mad."
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Did E-Vote Firm Patch Election?
by Kim Zetter
Diebold Election Systems has had a tumultuous year.
In January the electronic voting machine maker faced public embarrassment when voting activists revealed the company's insecure FTP server was making its software source code available for everyone to see.
Then researchers and auditors who examined code for the company's touch-screen voting system released two separate reports stating that the software was full of serious security flaws.
Then a former worker in Diebold's Georgia warehouse says the company installed patches on its machines before the state's 2002 gubernatorial election that were never certified by independent testing authorities or cleared with Georgia election officials.
The charges raise questions about the integrity of the Georgia election results and any other election that uses patched Diebold systems that have not been re-certified.
According to Rob Behler, an engineer hired as a contractor to work in Diebold's Georgia warehouse last year, the Diebold systems had major functioning problems. He said 25-30% of the machines in one shipment to the warehouse either crashed upon booting or had problems with their real-time clocks, causing the systems to register the date inaccurately then boot improperly or freeze up altogether.
Initially, Terrence Thomas, ABSS vice president for the southwest region, told Wired News that Behler was dismissed for "lack of performance." But when pressed to elaborate, Thomas consulted Behler's employee file, which he said he had previously not read, and admitted there was no indication that Behler was fired or that anyone at Diebold or ABSS had been disappointed with his performance.
James Rellinger, another contractor who worked in the Diebold warehouse until November, confirms that both Diebold and ABSS seemed happy with Behler's work. He said workers were surprised when they learned Behler had been replaced and hinted that internal politics were likely the cause. Behler was replaced by a friend of an ABSS project manager, who was later hired as a full-time employee of Diebold.
Behler denies he's a disgruntled employee, saying he is going out on a limb by revealing information that could cost him future work.
"I have seven children to support," he said. "This is not the kind of thing I would say if it wasn't the truth."
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LETTERS from UP! aheads
Hi Fraser,Please don’t repeat the silly silly lie however it might suit your view of the world.
Bush IS NOT a Christian.
He's using Christ’s good name - and it is actually a very good name ;-) - for political gain, its simple - like the Crusades.
Bush is a liar not a Christian - a liar whose lies are fuel for religious wars.
cf. Skull and Bones -
cheers
Tony Gosling
>> not guilty yer honour!
the quote i think u r referring 2 is:
“christian crusaders” (who KNOW what’s right)
it's in quotes. i agree it's somewhat ambiguous, maybe in my own mind too, but surely the quotes make it mean: 'as they present themselves' or 'as they are mostly perceived. no?
and i confess to sometimes believing that bush believes he's being xtian, i mean as in smiting the heathen, spreading the one true faith etc. in other words his "xtian" conditioning adds more gusto to his wilder crazier more violent behaviour that an atheist might not possess. discuss?
and lastly (cos am in the mood) dinosaurs cannot possibly be christians but some christians have definitely shown an aptitude for being dinosaurs. wouldn’t you agree?
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FUKK UKRAINE. WHAT ABOUT THE USA??!
I reckon the situation state-side is going to get v.messy. My pre-election prediction was a Bush "victory" via obvious fraud, then mass demos leading to Homeland Security measures such as martial law (there were tanks mobilised in California?).
I don't think the Bush junta are going to let go of power without a major struggle.
God help America!
The thing that annoys me most tho is how ON EARTH can it be that our democracy (and other countries) is/are not shouting at the top of their voices. Where is the United Nations in all this??!!! - re the US election, which is - no disrespect to Ukraine - infinitely more important, given the global reach of the USA. FUKK UKRAINE. WHAT ABOUT THE USA??!
If the UN can't, doesn't or won't get involved in this absolutely massive outrage (otherwise referred to as US Election 2004) then that should be the reason for protests, civil disobedience etc en todo el mundo. Let's all get involved. This should have happened in 2000. I’d wager everything I have that had Bush not been allowed to rob the 2000 election BY US that there would have been no war, either in Afghanistan, or Iraq.
But we still have an obligation to ask the questions of our apparently rabid international election monitors who are castigating the Ukrainian election… who fukking cares about the Ukraine when some dumb ass cowboy is running the US war machine illegally, without an electoral or democratic mandate to do so, and hell bent (it would seem) on taking his humble citizens on a suicidal crusade to acquire and then set fire to natural resources that'll simply fukk our planet. period.
All I Really Know Is This:
the sooner we get back to the garden the better - we should all stop working at our shitty pointless jobs, reclaim the land and start farming, screw politics/government/law etc all bloody useless.
Humanity has to reclaim what is rightfully ours - the land, our freedom and our dignity.
How does that grab y'all? 'Tis a bit fruity, but there u go. Could be the only way.
marc, glasgow, scotland.
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The Killing Of Van Gogh In Holland
>>>>> all I can say is this: why is it the extreme-left seems to DEFEND muslim fundamentalists who kill for their religion? As if there would be any lefty left alive if the fundamentalists would take power.
clifford cremer, amsterdam.
>>>> they DON'T defend them, clifford. they point out that what WE do to THEM is FAR FAR FAR WORSE, geddit? so when u think they should be mourning and bitching about some individual in the west being killed they truly and honestly wonder why you're not doing that for all the other side's innocent losses. can u answer me that?!
or do you think it's just 2 football teams and u gotta support your team whatever it does?
so, clifford, put your mathematics hat on. ready?
>>> ready when you are.
>>>> how many iraqis were killed in the week van gogh was killed? a cuppla hundred?
>>> No, 1200 - 1400 terrorists were killed by the US army and by the democratic forces of Iraq. These thugs and murderers were terrorising the people of Falluja, kidnapping them and beheading foreigners AND Irakis alike of whom THEY thought they were working for democracy. Have you ever seen the beheading video of Kenneth Bigley? Take a look if you dare, and then come back and tell me you have the slightest 'understanding' for these goulash killers... WHO KILL IN THE NAME OF ISLAM!
>> so, by YOUR 'official' estimation 1300 iraqis were killed. and ONE dutchman.
and YOU maintain that EVERY ONE of those 1300 were subhuman beheading monsters even tho u know better than i that our bombs and bullets are not THAT accurate :)
or, put it another way, we know a minimum of 100,000 iraqi civilians have been killed so far (pre-fallujah). that’s INNOCENT people who never even made an anti-american-porno film you don’t know a single name of one of them but we ‘lefties’ are supposed to argue endlessly about ONE dutch death. sorry.
first set to fraser.
>>>> and we don't even know their names never mind you and i discussing the meaning of their deaths.
>>> Oh yeah? We're trying hard to find out their names 0 for clues on the whereabouts of Usama bin Laden and Al Zarqawi, those Robin Hoods of the loony left.
>> I’ll give you ONE point for humour, ok? but, since 99,999 dead innocent iraqis can’t laff, I’ll have to take the second set, no opposition having been offered. 2 sets to LOVE :)
>>>>> The times they are changing, my friend. Heard yesterday how some French intelligence guy predicts a civil war in Holland within 10 years. If that happens - and I really do think it WILL happen - you Brits better brace yourselves.
>>>> yes, you may very possibly be right about civil wars in europe but you are SO SO wrong about the cause. it's actions like bush's and attitudes like yours that started it and are daily fanning the flames of a religious war. just as my side was predicting 2 years ago and more. how can you not see that?!
>>> right frassa... Theo van Gogh was not butchered in the middle of Amsterdam because he made a documentary about the mistreatment of islamic women (QUOTING only from the Koran), no, he was killed because the USA responded to the biggest terrorstrike in history. Jeez Frassa, when will people like you finally open your eyes, to see that the MUSLIM FASCISTS are among us. HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT???
>> yes, I might even go that far: van gogh would probably be alive today if britain, america and holland were not OCCUPYING afghanistan and iraq (to leave israel out of it for the mo). he would not have liked the film, but the anger, outrage, stress and utter utter despair that drove him would have been absent.
>>> tell me; do people in the UK who OPPOSE the seemingly limitless import of 3rd world people into the UK, have a voice at all? Are they able to discuss, to debate, to criticise in an open manner, on the usual media channels? NO, THEY DON’T, they're being treated like lepers and nazis. that's how OPEN your society is these days.
>> i agree, as a democrat am for totally open unrestricted debate. like we’re doing now.
but (and am sorry this is slightly complex) the widely held opinions you refer to are pretty entirely created and stirred by a right-wing financed media who report the news DAY AFTER DAY like they’re supporting the home team at all costs. we are always the good guys (except for a few bad apples) and they are always demons who hate our swimming pools. we kill ruffly one hundred of them for every one they kill of us but report only our deaths. with a war of civilisations being whipped up by same right wing elites (sometimes unconsciously I grant you) all democrats must be responsible and talk and even walk quietly.
and modestly too, for we were burning witches not so long ago, and are still demonising drug takers and assuming we possess the latest outdating-everything-else spiritual Truth (xtianity, yes, remember your childhood conditioning?)
>>>> are they invading us?!
>>> as a matter of fact: YES! They ARE invading us, millions and millions of them are in western European countries right now, sticking to their retarded ways and actively REFUSING to adopt a MODERN and WESTERN lifestyle.
> that’s why we must walk quietly. but, since that’s AVOIDING my question, that’s 3 sets to LOVE.
clifford, wonder to yourself whether you are so possessed by an ingrained mind-set (guess by whom!) that you cannot grant a single good point to the ‘other side’. test it by offering one. am serious, please don’t avoid my question by being funny :)
>>>> have they invaded iraq/france and afghanistan/germany to surround iran/holland on 2 sides?
>>> YES, it's a biological WAR right now.
>> uh oh, question avoiding again.
>>> For every fucking WHITE Dutchman who leaves Holland because he's disgusted with where his country is going (straight back to the middle ages), 7 to 8 muslim, 3rd world people take his place. Now YOU do the math: with Amsterdam being 60% third world, islamic right now, where will that leave the city 20 years from now?
>i note that you bundle foreign / 3rd world in the same bag with muslims for the convenience of your argument but let it pass.
>>> Amsterdam will be in fact an ISLAMIC city, where the law of the Koran will rule. Do you seriously think any of the freedoms we have today, will still remain? Do you seriously think, people could have open and free debates like the one we are having now?
>> the Evolutionary Plan is that we should be moving to a Global Village. trubble is america has patented every last brick of it and wants to lease it all to us, FOREVER; and under bush is prepared to bomm to Freedom dust anyone with other ideas. it’s a problem, sure, but don’t mistake the resistance to the burgeoning Evil Empire (now no longer even technically ‘democratic’) for the Primal Threat to wo-mankind.
>>>> what would an honourable eager young religious male like YOU do if you were in the heart of the Beast that's doing that to your people?
>> I would side wholeheartedly with the US forces to combat terrorist scum who kidnap, torture, kill and plunder.
now you’re being silly. unlike clifford, you would KNOW that the West was a hundred thousand miles ahead in all those 4 areas.
>> I would wholeheartedly OPPOSE the retarded bastards who think they can kill, threaten or terrorise free thinking (ATHEIST) Europeans because I would think that a free and open society is 1000 times better that a closed, suppressed, religious society where all males are sexually frustrated and all women are oppressed by their husbands, fathers, brothers and nephews.
>> we end in full agreement then :))))
but remember we ourselves were exactly like that until recently (and have mostly abused our freedom from such religious constraints to become ruthlessly and selfishly competitive and capitalistic) and remember we share a planet with MANY rich cultures, traditions and shamanic philosophies, many of which have much to teach even US :)
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First Fossil Chimp
The only known fossil of the Great Apes is a 4 million year old gorilla tooth. Now there may be another in the form of the upper part of a thigh bone found in 1961 in western Uganda. Originally identified as coming from a modern human, Jeremy DeSilva, a student at the University of Michigan, told a conference it is likely to have come from an ancestor of modern chimps. Right :)
[New Scientist]
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MEANWHILE
ON THE OTHER WAR FRONT…
The New Scientist, NOV 13, 04.ON THE OTHER WAR FRONT…
The Intoxication Instinct
From alcohol and cannabis to cocaine and LSD, it seems there are no limits to our appetite for mind-altering substances. What is it about human nature that drives us to get out of our heads, ask Helen Phillips and Graham Lawton
IN THE Smoke Shack, a "head shop" in Nelson, British Columbia, the air is thick with marijuana and the atmosphere is mellow as the staff stage a demo of their dope-related paraphernalia. The clients range from tourists and business types to the dreadlocked and dishevelled. All walks of life are welcome.
Over the border in the US, the police call to the man in the car for the last time. If he doesn't step out they will shoot. He stays put - maybe because he's embarrassed about being caught naked from the waist down, clearly aroused. Or maybe he's just too high on methamphetamine to care.
High up in the mountains of Peru the men brew coca leaves into a tea. While they don't approve of the habit of snorting the powdered extract, the tea gives them a mild buzz that helps fight the headaches and nausea of altitude sickness. Up here, cocaine is part of life.
Lounging in a restaurant, two old friends share a second bottle of wine, sinking lower in their seats as they enjoy the numbing haze and warmth it creates. Later they'll order brandy. The bartender pours himself a cup of coffee. It's going to be a long shift.
As diverse as these episodes are, there is a clear common thread running through them: the pursuit of intoxication. Since prehistoric times, humans have been seeking out and using intoxicating substances. Most people who have ever lived have experienced a chemically induced altered state of consciousness, and the same is true of people alive today. That's not to say that everybody is constantly fighting the urge to get high, nor that intoxication is somehow a normal state of consciousness. But how many of us can claim never to have experienced an altered state, whether it be a caffeine kick to help us get going in the morning, a relaxing beer after work, a few puffs on a joint at a party or the euphoric high of ecstasy?
Brain Seethes With Undiscovered Activity
University of Rochester researchers have found that 80^ of our cognitive power may be cranking away on tasks completely unknown to us
they assume it’s probably dedicated to subconsciously reprocessing our initial thoughts and experiences, but we know it’s much more about the Big Picture that the newspapers don’t report.
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In the present prohibitionist climate it’s difficult to talk about the use of psychoactive, literally "mind-altering", substances without focusing on their harmful and habit-forming properties. And it's true that excessive use of consciousness-altering drugs, both legal and illegal, is bad for individuals and bad for society. People who seek intoxication are taking risks with their health and flirting with addiction. Drugs can lead to crime, violence, accidents, family disintegration and social decay. University of Rochester researchers have found that 80^ of our cognitive power may be cranking away on tasks completely unknown to us
they assume it’s probably dedicated to subconsciously reprocessing our initial thoughts and experiences, but we know it’s much more about the Big Picture that the newspapers don’t report.
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Nonetheless, intoxicants remain a part of most people's lives . And indeed most of us are able to consume them in moderation without spiralling into abuse and addiction. Take alcohol, for example. Its potent psychoactive properties and potential for wreaking havoc are well known, yet the majority of people still drink and enjoy it without becoming alcoholics. There's also ample evidence that, despite public health campaigns and the threat of severe penalties, millions of people every year join the legions who have experimented with illegal substances, from cannabis and cocaine to ecstasy, amphetamines and LSD.
It seems that intoxication in one form or another is universal, a part of who we are. "It's a natural part of consciousness to change one's consciousness," argues Rick Doblin, who runs the not-for-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in Sarasota, Florida (MAPS) But why is it that we choose to alter our state of consciousness by dosing our brains with chemicals?
The answer is straightforward. We seek intoxication for a simple reason that we are almost too scared to admit - we like it. Intoxication can be fun, sociable, memorable, therapeutic, even mind-expanding. Saying as much in the present climate is not easy, but an increasing number of researchers now argue that unless we're prepared to look beyond the "drug problem" and acknowledge the positive aspects of intoxication, we are only seeing half the story - like researching sex while pretending it isn't fun.
A full understanding of intoxication, and the quest to achieve it, could have numerous pay-offs. For one thing there is the prospect of better ways to tackle abuse and addiction. There are also good reasons for studying intoxication as a phenomenon in its own right. What is it about psychoactive substances that we like? What do they tell us about who we are? Is there a way to get the good without the bad? Some researchers believe that such enquiries will lead to a new understanding of the human mind, including the mysteries of consciousness , or new treatments for mental illness. Others go as far as to argue that it is time for society to accept that intoxication is an inextricable part of human nature, and find a way to let us explore it openly.
Super Slow Light & Solitary Light Waves
National Institute of Standards and Technology physicists have proposed a new way to slow light to almost one-millionth its usual speed.
They’ve also presented mathematical calculations proving the existence of a new class of "soliton," a solitary light wave that can propagate over long distances without distortion.
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The quest to understand intoxication wasn't always so constrained. Back in the 1950s, ‘60s and early ‘70s, many scientists took a very personal interest in it. In those more liberal days, researchers such as physician Andrew Weil, latterly of the National Institute for Mental Health in Maryland, and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna charted the effects of many drugs, tested them in the lab and in the field, explored their mind-altering qualities first-hand, documented their use in different cultures, and suggested that many of the compounds had medicinal benefits. National Institute of Standards and Technology physicists have proposed a new way to slow light to almost one-millionth its usual speed.
They’ve also presented mathematical calculations proving the existence of a new class of "soliton," a solitary light wave that can propagate over long distances without distortion.
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Many of these pioneering researchers came to the conclusion that seeking intoxication was programmed into human nature. As Weil pointed out in his 1973 book The Natural Mind, from an early age children experiment with spinning around or hyperventilating to experience mind-altering giddiness. He suggested that when we get older, this quest to alter our feelings stays with us but we pursue it chemically as well as physically.
The spirit of personal research, however, was largely quashed in the late 70s and 80s as a US-led "war on drugs" took hold. Drug research became dominated by the "addiction paradigm", with pleasure and benefits strictly off-limits. "It was so controversial it had to be shut down altogether," says Charles Grob, director of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, whose interests lie with the potential medical use of psychedelics.
But some researchers carried on regardless. Ronald Siegel, now a psychopharmacologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, was one of them. As a psychology graduate student in the ‘60s he busied himself with studying pigeon memory. One day, a fellow student was arrested for marijuana possession, and his lawyer asked Siegel what he knew about the drug's effects. Not much, as it happened, so he brewed up an extract and watched what happened when a pigeon got stoned.
Ever since, he has been fascinated by intoxication, what it is and why we and other animals seek it. He managed to keep studying "controlled substances" such as LSD, mescaline, PCP, cocaine and psilocybin in his clinic, in animals and in volunteers, all legal and above board. He's passed out, thrown up, been attacked by intoxicated animals, and even been shot at by drug barons - all in the name of research. And he has gained a unique perspective, spelled out in his 1989 book Intoxication: Life In Pursuit Of Artificial Paradise, which is being reissued next April by Park Street Press of Rochester, Vermont.
Siegel believes there is a strong biological drive to seek intoxication. "It's the fourth drive," he says. "After hunger, thirst and sex, there is intoxication." Whether we are seeking pleasure, stimulation, pain relief or escape, at the root of this drive, he says, is the motivation to feel "different from normal" - what has sometimes been called "a holiday from reality". Some people reach this state through travel, books, art, roller coasters, sport, religion, exploration, love, social contact or power. Others use intoxicants. "It's the same motivation," says Siegel. "We wouldn't live if we didn't seek to feel different."
One of the main "different" feelings we want to experience is pleasure. Pleasure, neuroscientists believe, is the brain's way of telling us that we are doing something that is good for survival, such as eating and sex. The circuits that create the feeling are driven by natural opioids and cannabinoids. No surprise, then, that we have a penchant for putting versions of these chemicals into our brains.
Paralysed Man Sends E-mail By Thought
A pill-sized brain chip, able to tap into 100 neurons at a time, has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts.
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But the equation is not quite as simple as chemical in, pleasure out. At last month's Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California, neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor described preliminary work showing that rats given a natural cannabinoid, anandamide, seemed to become unusually partial to sweet tastes. Rats primed with anandamide had higher pleasure responses to sugar than unprimed rats. It seems that the cannabinoid may not just be pleasurable in its own right, but also enhances other pleasurable experiences, making the world seem a generally more likeable place. Perhaps this is one aspect of the well-known "munchies" effect of marijuana, they conclude. A pill-sized brain chip, able to tap into 100 neurons at a time, has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts.
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A related idea is that some people take psychoactive substances to suppress "negative pleasure". George Koob, a neuroscientist and addiction specialist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, has proposed that the brain has a natural system for limiting the amount of pleasure we can feel. He argues that pleasure has to be transient or humans and other animals would get so absorbed in it that they would succumb to the next predator that came along. Koob thinks that the brain has a way of bringing us down - a kind of "anti-pleasure" mechanism if you like. What if this system goes into overdrive? "Some people seek excessive pleasure because they are born with too much anti-pleasure," he says. "They may take drugs to feel normal."
But there is more to intoxication than simply massaging our pleasure circuits. Some altered states, Siegel believes, have a utilitarian value. Just as many animals naturally seek medicinal plants such as antibiotics or emetics, we seek to medicate our minds. When we are agitated or in pain, emotionally as well as physically, we seek substances that tranquillise and sedate. When tired or depressed, we seek stimulants. According to some researchers, including Grob, this medicinal use is an underlying thread running through all forms of intoxication.
The drive to medicate mood is pervasive throughout the animal kingdom, Siegel says, and he and his colleagues have documented thousands of examples. Elephants, for instance, enjoy the taste of fermented fruit. They will usually just browse it, but if they lose their mate (elephants usually mate for life) they may seek oblivion in an alcoholic fruit binge, even drinking neat ethanol if researchers provide it. It's hard not to conclude that, like humans, they are drowning their sorrows. Stress can also lead animals to take intoxicants as a form of escape. When stressed by overcrowding, elephants are more motivated to seek alcohol. And fear can take its toll too. During the Vietnam war, Siegel and his team filmed water buffalo grazing on opium poppies to the point of addiction. And animals don't just take downers: there are numerous reports of goats guzzling stimulants such as coffee beans and the herbal amphetamine khat.
Medication with uppers and downers may be fairly easy to understand, but there are other intoxicants whose attractions are harder to fathom. These are the hallucinogens, which can't easily be explained in purely survivalist terms. Most animals actively avoid this category of intoxicant.
Despite this, some researchers believe that psychedelics can have a medicinal effect in humans. Doblin, for example, argues that the drastically altered states they induce can play a role in maintaining mental health. Hallucinogens - and to some extent cannabis and MDMA - allow us to escape, temporarily, from a reality ruled by logic, ego and time, and explore other aspects of our consciousness. "The brain functions best when it has access to altered states," he says. This might sound like hippy mumbo-jumbo, but there is plenty of evidence in the medical literature that hallucinogens are effective against mental illness, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism and heroin addiction. Most of this research was done in the 1950s, but the field is now showing signs of a revival. Grob recently received approval to test psilocybin as a treatment for severe anxiety in terminally ill cancer patients, and there are ongoing studies in the use of psilocybin for otherwise untreatable cases of obsessive compulsive disorder, and MDMA for serious post-traumatic stress disorder.
Medicinal properties notwithstanding, there are other ideas to explain why people take psychedelics. Siegel found