USATODAY.com - To win, Bush must refute Kerry acceptance speech charges

"John Kerry's language was not nasty, and he didn't always make his charges directly, but in his 45-minute acceptance speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, he managed to fire some pretty strong accusations against President Bush.

If they are all true, then we shouldn't vote Bush out of office in November, we should be heading for the White House right now with torches and ropes."

An unusual article which turns Kerry's soft rhetoric into hard (albeit founded) accusations against Bush but then ... decides not to try to answer them. Fascinating ...

USATODAY.com - Senate committee continues probe of Statue of Liberty charity

"The charity that runs the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is being asked by Congress to explain some of its expenses, including high salaries for its executives and $45,000 a year for a dog that chases away geese."

Very likely that there is skullduggery in this organization. After all, isn't the Statue of Liberty originally French?

Democracy Now! | Flashback: A Rare Broadcast of John Kerry's 1971 Speech Against the Vietnam War Before the Senate

Democracy Now! has nailed it again. Unforturnate that this has been hidden by the Democrats because it is just as pertinent for the Iraq wars as for the Vietnam war.

"'Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, 'the first President to lose a war... how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?' "

Change that to Bush/Iraq.

Salt Lake Tribune | Results

"President Bush attacked John Kerry's 19-year record in the Senate on Friday, answering the Democratic convention mantra ''America can do better'' with a new GOP refrain: ''Results matter.''"

This is indeed a surprising turn for the Bubba campaign because results, at least good ones, are precisely what have been missing for the past four years. Whether you look at the US economy, the environment, defending the US Constitution, increasing US security at home and abroad, upholding the good image of the US -- all of these test "results" are bad, bad, not to say disastrous. If W wants to put forward his good results in a campaign speech, he'll have to invent them because, just like the WMDs in Iraq, they're just not there.

HoustonChronicle.com - Showdown looms over detainees at base

From the "it's about time" department ...

"In Washington, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, a Bush appointee who took the bench shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, ordered the government to explain by Tuesday why Salim Gherebi should not be released. If the government cannot show that Gherebi is a security risk, Walton said, he will order the 46-year-old Libyan immediately released. That would mark the first time the administration was forced to free any of the captives taken in the war on terror."

But then, from the "here's a glimmer of the bad part" department ...

HOW THE HEARING WORKS A panel of military officers decides whether a prisoner is an enemy combatant, as the military contends. Prisoners are represented by someone supplied by the military.

The Chron doesn't take it all the way home, so here's a jab:

-- "enemy combatant" is not a term in international law, the Geneva Conventions, or in the US Constution -- it's a made-up term
-- the Geneva Convention has been completely trammeled in Guantanamo
-- US law requiring the US to honor the Genevan Convention has been trammeled
-- the US Constitution has been spat upon by the Bush Administration

The Daily Star | Going to world court

I starting looking at this after a note in DemocracyNow. Unfortunately, this hasn't had much attention.

"The news of forty British MPs requesting the UN secretary general to seek advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, to determine the legality of the British war on Iraq should be welcomed by all those that are committed to the principles of justice and fairplay. Interestingly the group of forty is led by one of Blair's own party men, Alan Simpson. Reportedly, the group cuts across partylines.

The recent report by Lord Butler was very 'British' in that it rather extraordinarily arrived at the conclusion that everybody was beyond reproach and nobody made any mistakes, what if there was failure of intelligence. Blair could only take comfort in the Butler exculpation. Yet that is not what the more perspicacious see in the doings of the British Prime Minister. Concern arises when one sees powerful countries riding roughshod on international norms and sentiments in pursuing their selfish national interest, as was done by the Americans and the British in Iraq. "

Boston IMC | No Freedom of Speech at DNC

"Inside the convention, the DNC has banned anything but officially printed
banners and signs from the convention floor, and several anti-war delegates
from the Kucinich campaign have been told to take off scarves that say
delegate for peace. Outside the convention, those who oppose the
Democratic Party position on Iraq are relegated to a protest pen, which is
actually a cage surrounded by fencing and barbed wire. On Saturday, CODEPINK
objected to the protest pen by having some of its activists dress as pink
statues of liberty with tape over their mouths.

“We are supposed to have free speech all over the United States, not just
inside a pen that looks like a Guantanamo Bay detention camp,” Benjamin
said."

Strong Stuff that you don't see on CNN. Thanks to cursor.

FOX Carolina | "Fahrenheit" screening draws big crowd in Bush's hometown

"More than three-thousand people showed up on a hot summer night to take in an outdoor showing of Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas."

Now this is an amazing number to print, very different from what you read in the REUTERS headline:

Hundreds Watch 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in Bush Hometown

...

"[O]nly a handful of moviegoers from the tiny hamlet of Crawford were in attendance. There appeared to be twice as many foreign exchange students from Belgium as locals."

BBC NEWS | Elton John attacks 'censorship' in US

Even Elton John has things to say about the US media situation:

"Sir Elton said performers could be 'frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics'.

The singer likened the current 'fear factor' to McCarthyism in the 1950s.

'There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot down by people saying you are un-American,' he told the magazine.

The singer said things were different in the 1960s.

'People like Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, The Beatles and Pete Seeger were constantly writing and talking about what was going on."

Ask the Dixie Chicks what they think about this.

Fahrenheit 9/11 in Victoria, Texas

Much to the surprise of many of the denizens of Victoria, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 did make it to the local theaters, displacing Harry Potter III. 
 
The wife and I went to a 10pm showing on a Thursday night.  The seance was not packed but we were 11 to sit through the entire film in relative calm.  Other than the wife and me, everyone else in the theatre was in the early 20's and didn't look particularly pre-disposed to being peaceniks, liberals or even anti-Bush. 
 
My take on the movie: probably eye-opening for most folk but mostly a rehash for folks like me who have been following this material for some time.  Not that it isn't important, even well-edited, but that it wasn't startling.  It is mostly scary to think that this material may be, for some, startling, which has more to do with the current media situation in the US than anything else. 
 
 
 
 

smh.com.au : Allawi shot prisoners in cold blood: witnesses

This is really scary!

"Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.

They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they 'deserved worse than death'.

The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.

But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence."

Thanks to cursor.

Request for UN Observers : Corrine Brown talks about Censure

Even a seasoned blogger such as myself feels the chill in a report like this one:
 
Representative Brown told First Coast News she still stands behind her comments that ignited a firestorm in Washington.
 
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives censured Brown after a shouting match on the House floor Thursday night.The argument started during a debate over HR-4818. The bill would provide international monitoring of the November presidential election. Congress has been considering an outside monitor due to all the confusion over the last election, and the "hanging chads" in Florida.
 
Representative Brown said, "I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world."
 
Those comments drew an immediate objection from Republican members of the House. Leaders moved to strike her comments from the record. The House also censured Brown which kept her from talking on the House floor for the rest of the day.
 
Congresswoman Brown responded to the matter in a statement late Thursday night. Congresswoman Brown wrote, "Striking my words from the House floor is just one more example of the Republican Party's attempt to try and cover up what happened during the 2000 election."
 
Thanks to Tom.

Bradenton Herald | 07/03/2004 | Dems ask U.N. to monitor election

"Still smarting from the 2000 Florida recount, a group of congressional Democrats led by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has asked the United Nations to monitor this year's presidential election.
'We are deeply concerned that the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy,' the lawmakers wrote to Secretary General Kofi Annan."

This is, unfortunately, not a joke. Just look at the recent "Vote America" scandal.

"Under the Help America Vote Act, millions of dollars are being spent to replace old punch card and mechanical voting systems. State and local governments are buying systems where the ballot appears on a computer screen. Voters touch the screen to make their choices. These systems can provide results quickly.

But technical problems have been reported. There are also questions about computer security. The worst fear is that someone dishonest might be able to steal an election.

Avi Rubin is a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He and a team of researchers say electronic voting systems are not acceptable for the presidential election this November. They argue that there are still too many problems.

Target.com: I Love A Deal: Patriot T-Shirt

"Product Description: Exclusive. Paul Revere. Thomas Jefferson. You. In big and little ways, through history and everyday life, the soul of our country comes from the energy and love of true patriots. White. 100% cotton. USA."



The 4th of July fever has hit the nation, especially here in the Bubba heartland of Texas. We're seeing patriot fervor hit a humming pitch, barreling along like a Suburban down a four-lane highway, guzzling that gas but providing that sense of motion to its super-cooled, ice-drink toting occupants. We get the high that goes along with conspicuous consumption, excessive ingestion of nourishment, beer guts, a sense of destiny. The local bank is decked in red/white/blue. And the local Target is selling "Patriot Coordinates" sporting different "Patriot" prints (the US flag, red/white/blue stars on assorted colors). And they're half-price until the 4th. Buy your patriotism while it's hot!