A splendid achievement

George Bush should be congratulated - he has surely earned the right to join the ranks of despots.....more

The Secret Letter From Iraq

A Marine's letter home, with its frank description of life in "Dante's inferno," has been circulating through generals' in-boxes. We publish it here with the author's approval.......more

North Korea's nuclear capabilities

Some experts estimate that at least 80 percent of the country's stockpile of 44 to 116 pounds of refined plutonium was processed since the end of the freeze in 2002......more

Righteous posturing blinds commission to its own hypocrisy

All this might have been funny if that kind of if-you-don't-agree-you're-against-God talk wasn't so dangerous. Even when it's ridiculous, off-point and irrelevant, history shows it can still pack the house......more

Vote....Joe Redner

Nelson doesn't act like Christian, Harris says

Six weeks after urging voters to elect only "tried and true" Christians, Senate candidate Katherine Harris is questioning her opponent's faith by saying he "votes completely contrary" to Christian principles.In an interview published by a Christian news service, Harris said incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson "claims to be a Christian" but supports policies "completely contrary to what we say we believe."......more

Stogie Recommends.....Vote Brian Moore

About 150 war protesters gather in downtown Sarasota

It may be the ultimate show of commitment to a cause for a Suncoast resident: June Gilley gave up a round of golf to protest Friday against the war and Vice President Dick Cheney.“If we weren’t here today, we’d be on a golf course,” said Gilley, a 70-year-old former Realtor who lives in Bradenton with her husband of 51 years, Horace.......more

GOP tries to rally voters

Some conservative leaders are attributing Foley's behavior to a society that condones homosexuality -- often with the help of policies championed by Democrats. `It's a byproduct of this permissive society that says really there's no right or wrong," said Tony Perkins , president of the conservative Family Research Council.......more

Gerrymandering: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count

In normal democracies, voters choose their representatives. But in America it seems to be the other way around. Webster’s on gerrymandering: "[T]he division of a territorial unit into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength in of the opposition in as few districts as possible.".......more

Jeb Bush gets rude welcome
Police disperse angry protesters in Downtown T-station

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in town for a fund-raiser for Sen. Rick Santorum, had a close encounter with a large group of anti-Republican protesters as he was making his way to the Duquesne Club, Downtown.......more

What about Diebold?
When all else fails, hack the election

This Congress have nothing to run on, the administration is a failure, and they are dealing with a sex predator scandal of epic proportions that simply won’t go away, so you have to wonder whether the desperate denials, backstabbing, and flat out lying by House leadership will matter at all when people go to the polls where Diebold equipment is in place......more

Bombings as US Casualties Mount as Iraq has Worst Week Yet

More blasts rocked Baghdad, spreading yet more carnage during what was already Iraq's worst week for bombings since the US invasion, and as American casualties continued to mount. For the fourth time this year a bomb exploded in bustling Tehran Square in downtown Baghdad, wounding at least 20 day labourers waiting at a spot popular for seeking work, security and medical officials said......more

61% Believe Republican Leaders Have Been Protecting Foley

Former Florida Congressman Mark Foley Sixty-one percent (61%) of American adults believe that Republican leaders have been “protecting [Mark] Foley for several years.” A Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday nights shows that only 21% believe that the leadership “just learn[ed] about Foley’s problems last week.”.......more

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.” But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’........more

AWAITING THE NEXT CONGRESS
Big Money vs. Grassroots: The Fight For the Heart of the Democratic Party

"Democrats' Stock Is Rising on K Street" blared a recent Washington Post story detailing moves by former Democratic lawmakers and staff to cash in as corporate lobbyists. "Corporate Contributions Shift to the Left," read an earlier Wall Street Journal story about how "big companies are boosting their share of campaign contributions to Democrats.".......more

Marriage Misery Driving Women to Despair
Often with no one to turn to, battered wives see suicide as the only way to end their agony

Driven to despair by her husband’s constant beatings, Pakhshan Muhamad, 36, decided seven months ago that she could take no more. She tried to commit suicide, pouring kerosene on her body and setting herself alight. Somehow she survived - but the scars are still visible on her face despite several plastic surgery operations......more

Woodward's 60 Minutes Bloodbath

This is the real "State of Denial"; the belief that it's okay to slaughter people and destroy their civilization to enhance the wealth and power of a handful of western elites. It's a crime for which Woodward is just as guilty as Bush.....more

OUR RIGGED ELECTIONS

So slight is Bush's popularity that his own party's candidates for Congress are afraid to speak his name or to be seen with him (although their numbers, in the aggregate, are even lower than his). It seems the only citizens who still have any faith in him are those who think God wants us to burn witches and drive SUVs. For all their zeal, such theocratic types are not in the majority, not even close, and thus there's no chance that the GOP can get the necessary votes......more

New Republican Logo

Drudge to Mark Foley's defense

He uses that age old "attack the messenger" conservative technique-only in a creepier way. He says the congressional pages are just as responsible because of Youtube and pop culture and how dare they egg him on like that. They are just 16 and 17 year old beasts after all and not innocent little babies who are engaged in a conspiracy against poor, old Foley. What kind of beast does that make the 52 year old Foley?.......Hear It here

How will the Clintons harness the political force of the blog?

While blogging has caught oneverywhere, presidential front-runner
Hillary Clinton' still does not blog - or at least not much. But her husband's lunch with leftbloggers such as Atrios, MyDD's Matt Stoller, Daily Kos' McJoan and Americablog's John (according to TalkLeft.com) might signal an innovative commitment to blogging for the office of commander in chief.....more.....more

The Rich Get Richer

Growing income disparity doesn’t presage a new labor movement at home — but it may signal more terrorism for us abroad.....more

Venezuela's oil wealth funds gusher of anti-poverty projects

Hugo Chavez's revolution came to the hillside slum of San Juan one recent night in the glare of a solitary lightbulb and with puddles from a recent thunderstorm still underfoot......more

And The Rocket’s Red Glare

The news that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor (re ACLU v. NSA ) who had recently ruled that the President's warrantless eavesdropping violated both criminal law and the U.S. Constitution, refused the administration's request for a stay and instead gave them only seven days to comply with her Order......more

Bush says Iraq War critics embrace enemy's propaganda

President Bush said Friday critics who claim the Iraq War has made America less safe embrace "the enemy's propaganda.".......more

Brian Moore:

An Alternative to Bill Nelson and Katherine Harris

Severely criticized U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida for his "vote for torture" today, for seriously limiting the rights of war prisoners and for protecting the Bush Administration and CIA operatives "from being held accountable for their abuse and torturing of prisoners" not to speak of the war itself...Read More

Florida's Shame: Bill Nelson
US Senate passes Bush's controversial detainee bill

Twelve Democrats voted in favor:
Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.).
click here

For more choices in Nov....here

Informed Dissent
Pacifica's National Election Special
Pacifica Radio's new program hosted by Mitch Jeserich, that looks at the issues effecting this year's mid-term elections and beyond......here