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By MacDonald Harris and Philip Pullman
$14.95
By Mark Pagel
$14.78
$23
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A Republican congressional candidate in Orange County has been asked by his own party to exit the race after he was implicated in mailing threats to Latino voters. Tan D. Nguyen denies responsibility for the mailer, which said immigrants would be jailed if they attempted to vote.
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A new Cato Institute study says this about libertarians: “They are a larger share of the electorate than the fabled ‘soccer moms’ and ‘NASCAR dads’ .... The political party that comes to terms with than can win the next generation.”
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firesigntheatre.com
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A Diebold whistle-blower has cited a mysterious patch that possibly swung the 2002 Georgia election as evidence that the company can’t be trusted. Days before the vote, Democrats in both the Senate and governor’s race were ahead in the polls by 5% and 11%, respectively, only to lose by a narrow margin on election day. (h/t: Engadget)
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Flickr/Eneas
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Mexico?s election crisis took an interesting turn this week, when supporters of defeated candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador elected him head of a symbolic ?parallel? government. Obrador and thousands of protesters have demanded a full recount of votes cast seven weeks ago, but Mexico?s electoral court ruled that Obrador?s rival, Felipe Calderon, won the election with a margin of less than 1%.
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BlackBoxVoting
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Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting recently got her hands on a Diebold voting machine and was able to hack it in four minutes with tools that cost $12. Harris? handiwork is just the latest demonstration of how vulnerable electronic voting machines are to vote manipulation.
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A Mexican election tribunal has denied presidential candidate Manuel Lopéz Obrador a full recount of votes cast in last month’s election. The ruling will surely disappoint the thousands of Obrador supporters who have been protesting in Mexico City for weeks.
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In an effort to combat sexual predators’ use of social networking websites, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would effectively make sites like Amazon and MySpace inaccessible at public spaces.
This is well-intentioned but horribly executed. Let’s hope the worse-than-“Do Nothing” Senate can keep this one from becoming law.
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iwight.com
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What good is a democracy without fair and clean elections? In this piece for Tom Paine, Art Levine looks ahead to the November vote, and explains ways concerned Americans can protect it.
Posted on Jul 20, 2006
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After the GOP-controlled Congress rejected an increase in the minimum wage, House lawmakers have now voted to exempt the heirs of millionaires from having to pay taxes on their inherited wealth.
Posted on Jun 23, 2006
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The stricter of the two bills being voted on—a measure that would have mandated a pullout by 2007—went down 86-13. The bill that didn’t have a timetable was defeated 60-39, with all but one Republican and six Democrats voting against the measure.
UPDATE: The Senate is weighing a modest troop reduction in the coming months.
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House Republicans canceled a vote to extend the historic act because some said it unfairly singled out Southern states. The “rebellion” was “a significant embarrassment for the party leadership,” according to the N.Y. Times.
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Senate Republicans shot down a measure that would have enacted oversight on the practices of private contractors in Iraq. As a result, companies like Halliburton are free to continue doing things like exposing U.S. soldiers in Iraq to water contaminated with fecal matter. The Nation has the details.
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The fierce debate on the Iraq war that began in Congress on Thursday will culminate on Friday with a nonbinding resolution that includes: labeling the Iraq war as part of the war on terror, and opposition to setting an “arbitrary” withdrawal date. Democrats decried the vote as an election-year sham.
Video: Dems rip GOP lawmakers during Thursday’s debate.
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The California Assembly passed a measure to pledge the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote (as opposed to giving its Electoral College votes to the winner of the California popular vote).
This would come into effect only if enough other states passed similar measures. But if it happens, it will mean the end of the electoral college as we know it.
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The panel recommended a version of the Net neutrality bill that would bar telecom companies from charging premium fees for Web companies that sell video and other content.
This is far from a full victory, but it’s a step in that direction.
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It’s the blackest of all comedy: The man who engineered the NSA’s domestic wiretapping program appears to be sailing toward confirmation as the nation’s next CIA chief.
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Ned Lamont, the neophyte antiwar Democrat who is challenging Sen. Joe Lieberman for his seat in Conn., easily garnered enough votes to force a primary with Lieberman—who is Bush’s favorite Democrat.
This is a big deal. Lieberman is in trouble. If you want to learn more about Lamont, check out the Truthdig interview.
Posted on May 19, 2006
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In this time of record profits for oil companies, the House approved a measure to withdraw a $7-billion subsidy over the next five years. Unbelievably, 165 Republicans wanted to let the oil companies keep the public’s money.
Posted on May 19, 2006
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The senior official in Bush’s reelection campaign got 10 months for his part in a phone-jamming scheme to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in a 2002 election.
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From ThinkProgress
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House and Senate conservatives have agreed to spend $70 billion to extend the 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends until 2010.
Posted on May 9, 2006
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Democrats say Republican officials made two dozen calls to the White House in 2002 as part of a plot to tie up get-out-the-vote efforts in New Hampshire’s 2002 Senate race. There are already three federal convictions and a pending indictment in the case.
Posted on Apr 11, 2006
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By Molly Ivins — I do like the idea of supporting democracy ... and think we should try it—especially here in the U.S. of A.
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From aoqz76.dsl.pipex.com
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The House just voted down an amendment that would have provided $1.25 billion for port inspections and disaster preparedness. Meanwhile, as Think Progress points out, the Bush budget contains an increase of $1.7 billion for a Star Wars-esque missile defense program—which doesn’t even work.
May the Force be with us.
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The cliffhanger vote caught Republican leaders by surprise. The president is expected to sign the legislation into law before Friday.
With the nation’s attention trained squarely on the Dubai Ports fiasco (not that it’s an unimportant issue), Congress has passed the most sweeping abridgement of American freedoms in a generation—with barely a peep from the public.
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The largely ineffectual interim leader is now set to take formal control of the country. He is backed by theocratic Shiites in Iran and the rabidly anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr in Iraq. A theocratic state, virulently hostile to U.S. interests? Right now Ahmad Chalabi is almost starting to look good in comparison. | story
Posted on Feb 12, 2006
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Pulling this off would be the ultimate hat trick. Republicans reportedly need only one more Democrat on their side to force a vote. | story
People for the American Way are supplying a form letter urging key senators to join Kerry in his filibuster.
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Khalid Mohammed / AP
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The parliamentary results are confirmed: Shiites will dominate both the Sunnis and the Kurds in Iraq. So while the U.S. tries to intimidate Iran over its nukes, Iranian-bred theocratic Shiites—those most hostile to our interests—are in the ascendancy in Iraq. So much for the neocons’ “Field of Dreams” scenario for creating democracy in Iraq: “If you break it, they will come.” | story
- Also, read Juan Cole on how Bush created a theocracy in Iraq. | column
- And read Robert Scheer on Iran’s victory in Iraq. | item
Update: A former Pentagon analyst is sentenced to 12 years-plus for leaking confidential documents in an attempt to get the U.S. to take the threat of Iran more seriously. | story
Update No. 2: Iran and Iraq are already linking arms on the construction of electricity facilities.
Posted on Jan 20, 2006
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repubblica.it
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One of the most socially progressive European states debates whether or not to allow women to wear the garments in public. Can a fatwa be far off? | story
Also, The Guardian probes an Islamic debate over the place of nudity in, heaven forbid, marriage. | story
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By Marc Cooper — The bloody Chilean dictator is a whisker away from trial. Marc Cooper weighs in on the significance of the recent booking of the 90-year-old General Augusto Pinochet.
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The threat of a filibuster holds up as Republicans fail to get enough votes to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) tried to force the measure through Congress as part of a must-have defense spending bill. See our coverage to find out what was at stake: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) filed a report after the House passed the measure earlier this week. See the related story by Robert Collier and the photo essay by Deddeda Stemler to learn more.
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Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
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