Hanging Chads 2000 Revisited by Dan Rather Report

Dan Rather did an hour long report, The Trouble With Touch Screens, for HDnet last week.

The first part exposed shoddy touch screen machines built in the Phillipines by ES&S. Thousands of these machines were produced using cheap parts in sweatshop conditions by workers who were paid $2.50 per day. Quality control consisted of shaking some (not all) machines to see if anything rattled.

Watch the video, or read the transcript for full details.

The last part put the spotlight on Sequoia Pacific, the company that produced the punch cards used in the 2000 presidential election. We all remember the hanging chads, and thousands of ballots in Palm Beach County alone that registered overvotes or no vote at all for the presidential candidate. Palm Beach County traditionally is a Democratic stronghold.

...some of the best engineering minds in the country, at IBM, ...perfected the old Votomatic punch card system decades ago. Those punch cards, when they had been used by IBM for data processing, had been precise enough to help land a man on the moon. That's how reliable they were.

But by 2000, in an avalanche of hanging and falling chads, the punch card voting system was proclaimed to be "unreliable", old hat, out with the old and in with the new. Yet seven years and billions of dollars later, the public, especially in Florida, the public is clamoring for paper ballots again.

Rather interviews seven former employees of Sequoia Pacific with 171 years combined experience working for the company. They spoke with pride about the quality of punch card ballots their plant had produced over the years, and the company's about face in 1999 when producing punch cards for the 2000 election.

The company abandoned former suppliers of archival quality paper for a new supplier, and sub-standard rolls of paper, rejected by the plants quality control, were somehow ok'ed by upper management and used for those ballots.

To add to the insult of the inferior quality paper, E. Washington, a pressman at Sequoia for 26 years, relates that he was ordered to change the specifications for the cards bound for Palm Beach County, because they would "grow" in the Florida humidity...

E. Washington: We were told to run those cards short because they would grow by the time they got to Florida in the humidity.

Dan Rather: Running short didn't mean the cards were actually shorter. It simply means lowering, on the face of the ballot, the position of the chads. So the orders were for the ballots going to Palm Beach, don't make them meet the normal specifications?

E. Washington: Right. Because they would grow and if we met the normal specifications they would grow outside the specifications because of the humidity.

Dan Rather: Was this unusual?

E. Washington: Yep

Dan Rather: Were you surprised by it?

E. Washington: Oh yeah, I questioned it, and I even had the plant manager sign it. Because I was having arguments with quality control about the size. And so I said, 'The only way I am going to run it is if Brian comes out here and signs it.' He came out, he signed the 'okay' card to run 'em.

Dan Rather: Let me get this straight. You said, 'You are asking me to turn out a product that doesn't mean our usual specifications. To be sent specifically to Palm Beach, Florida'

E. Washington: Right

One employee speculates that Sequoia purposely produced faulty punch cards to give a jump start to sales of the touch screen machines, which so far had received a lukewarm reception.

Greg Smith: My own personal opinion was the touch screen voting system wasn't getting off the ground like that they, like they would hope. And because they weren't having any problems with paper ballots. So, I feel like they, deliberately did all this to have problems with the paper ballots so the electronically voting systems would get off the ground, and which it did in a big way.

Perhaps the company's greed was a factor in the failure of punch cards in Florida 2000. But given that the final "count" had Bush winning Florida by around 600 votes, it seems that something other motive is lurking in the shadows.

Management and employees involved in the production of these faulty ballots should be questioned under oath to determine exactly what happened. Our right to vote, and to have that vote counted is the foundation of this democracy. I, for one, would like to be reassured that when I step into the ballot box, my vote is counted. I'm sure millions of other voters feel the same.

Source: The Brad Blog

Planned Parenthood Supporters VS The Blunt Mini-White House

Over the years, many low-income women I know have used the services of the local Planned Parenthood facility for pap tests, gyn wellness exams and contraception. When Blunt took funding away from this program, I decided to make donations to our local Planned Parenthood as often as I can. Contraception is the key to preventing unwanted pregnancy. This is just a no-brainer for me.

The KY3 news last night had a story about Planned Parenthood supporters who live in the Springfield neighborhood where Blunt resides. They have posted pink signs signifying their support for Planned Parenthood. The KY3 Political Notebook blog has photos of the signs and a link to the news segment.

Governor and Mrs. Blunt refuse to live in the governor's mansion. It just doesn't suit them, they have grander visions. Instead, they have taken up residence in a mini version of the White House here in Springfield. The governor spends around four hours of each working day communting to Jeff City, in a caravan of gas guzzling SUVs. No wonder the state is in such a mess.

RNC Letter to MO Democrat Raises Questions

Since Missouri voters do not register by party affiliation, there is confusion about the purpose of this RNC generated form letter, received by an elderly resident of Queen City, MO.

From Talking Points Memo:

RNC Voter "Audit" Letter Raises Questions
By Paul Kiel - August 10, 2007, 12:20 PM

What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: "Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO," the letter said. "But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities."

Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. You can see the letter, and the accompanying "Voter Registration Verification and Audit Form," right here. Particularly puzzling to the both of them, Dennis told me, is that his father is a life-long Democrat...

...The letter "appears to be in a gray area," David Becker, Director of People for the American Way's Democracy Campaign and a former voting rights attorney at the Justice Department, told me. "It could potentially run afoul of the law if it led an eligible voter to believe they're no longer eligible to vote." The letter, Becker said, "appears designed to give that mistaken impression..."

Pearl Jam's Anti-Bush Lyrics Censored

Someone pointed out that the only ones who have "freedom of the press" are the ones who control the press. Hopefully, indidents such as this will help to Rock the Vote in 2008.

From Timothy Karr at the Huffington Post:

AT&T: Your World Censored

Over the weekend AT&T gave us a glimpse of their plans for the Web when they censored a Pearl Jam performance that didn't meet their standard of "Internet freedom."

Pearl Jam: Seen But Not Heard During the live Lollapalooza Webcast of a concert by the Seattle-based super-group, the telco giant muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a lyric against President George Bush. The lines -- "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home" were somehow lost in the mix.

"What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band," Pearl Jam band members stated in a release following the incident.

Indeed. AT&T routinely rails against Net Neutrality as a "solution without a problem." They say Net Neutrality regulations aren't necessary because they wouldn't dare interfere with online content. At the same time they tout plans to become gatekeepers to the Web with public relations bromides about "shaping" Web traffic to better serve the needs of an evolving Internet.

Such spin needs to be held up to the light of experience. AT&T's history of breaking trust with their customers includes handing over private phone records to the government, promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town, pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco, Viacom, RIAA and MPA to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.

The moral of this story is never trust AT&T at their word. The company acts in bad faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can get away with to pad its bottom line -- including sacrificing the freedoms its users have to choose where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online.

The Future of Music Coalition have done great work to mobilize hundreds of rock bands against such censorship but it's a threat that concerns everyone.

AT&T's vision of a better Internet -- "Your World Delivered" -- is not one that is shared by the more than 1.5 million people who have spoken out in favor of a neutral, affordable and accessible Internet for everyone. For us, the Internet isn't about one company delivering our world. It's about simply offering a real high-speed connection at reasonable rates -- and then getting out of our way.

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

Roy Blunt doesn't think people earning the minimum wage of $5.15 deserved a raise, but he has no problem with approval of a hefty annual pay raise for congress.


From today's Turner Report:

Blunt: Nothing wrong with Congressional pay increases
Some members of Congress are putting themselves on the record as opposing their upcoming $4,400 pay increases, but not Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt: Defending the raise, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, "Every member has some obligation to the institution for the compensation to, as much as possible, keep pace with inflation. I think this should be as good a job when I leave it as it was when I took it."

Here is Blunt's view on the minimum wage 1/10/07 from the Columbia Tribune Politics Blog:

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Springfield, who came out today against the minimum wage increase.

"The last thing Congress should do is pass legislation that imposes an unfunded mandate on small businesses that employ millions of American workers and are the backbone of our economy," Blunt said in a news release.

The Fairness Doctrine

We have two radio stations in our listening area that have 24 hours a day of Republican sponsored programming that ranges from obnoxious and misinformed to hate-filled invectives against the Democratic party and any viewpoint other their own. Anyone who disagrees is generally shouted down or ridiculed, with no effort to have a meaningful exchange of ideas.

I listen to those radio stations, and take note of sponsors so I can choose not to patronize them. My eye doctor was advertising on one particularly awful program, so I changed doctors. That's the only fairness I can derive from this hi-jacking of the air waves by right-wing loud mouths.

When people are unwilling to listen to each other and attempt to reach a middle ground, then the democratic process goes by the wayside. When one side has carte blanche to denigrate the other and present only their own viewpoint, no one is benefited.

I know most of the media people are not in favor of the Fairness Doctrine because they have to work harder to be inclusive of all view points. It's a "free speech" issue, they say. When one political party commandeers the airwaves, it would seem to me that the rights of the other party to speak are disregarded.

Some version of the Fairness Doctrine could help to remedy this situation.

News-Leader Omits Address of New Democratic Headquarters

The News-Leader noted today that the Greene County Democratic Central Committee will hold a grand opening and open house Sunday, July 22 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm to celebrate the move to its new headquarters.

They failed to mention the location for those who wish to attend. According to their website, www.gcmodemocrats.org, that location is 1764 S. Fremont Ave. in Springfield.

Blunt Staff Misuses Highway Patrol Spokesman to Criticize AG Nixon

From Howard Beale at Fired Up Missouri:


Blunt Takes Page Right Out of Bush's DOJ Playbook

Today's KC Star has a fantastic story by Tim Hoover about the Blunt administration's misuse of state government in pursuing its own partisan political goals. The nut:

Gov. Matt Blunt’s staff last month pressed the Missouri Highway Patrol to issue a public statement criticizing Attorney General Jay Nixon, Blunt’s likely Democratic challenger in 2008.E-mails obtained by The Kansas City Star through an open records request detail how deeply Blunt’s office was involved in crafting a June 7 patrol statement that bolstered Republican criticism of Nixon for deciding not to file criminal charges in the December 2005 Taum Sauk reservoir collapse...

The story goes on to excerpt various emails that show Blunt's office leaning hard on law enforcement agents to alter public statements in a way that would make them more critical of Attorney General Nixon...

Nike, Sweatshops and Slave Labor

A Running Commentary is a new blog from a local journalist Matthew Lemmon. He and his wife are training for the Nike Women's Marathon, which will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each person entering the marathon must raise $3800 to be eligible. I've been approached for contributions by two young women from the area who are also scrambling to raise the money to enter this race.


Nike, along with mega-retailer Wal-Mart, have been deservedly criticized in reports of human rights abuses in their factories in third world countries. People who create the shoes and other products for Nike are virtual slaves. They work long hours, often 7 days a week, for a few cents per hour.

From a 2005 report from the New Zealand Herald, Nike Admits Sweatshop Conditions:

In a 108-page report the company, based in Beaverton, Oregon, presented a surprisingly frank audit of labour conditions at 569 of 830 factories worldwide where Nike-branded footwear, apparel and sports equipment are made.

Nike's "corporate responsibility" report doesn't make for a pretty picture. From excessively long work weeks and wrong wage calculations to verbal abuse and curbs on toilet visits, the findings confirm a pervasive culture of exploitation. At risk are as many as 650,000 workers in factories located from Australia and China to the US and Vietnam. Most of them are women aged between 19 and 25.

In 2006, Nike spent $476 million dollars on celebrity endorsements, and CNBC reported Investors Fret About Nike Endorsements. The total Nike advertising budget for 2006 totaled $1.7 billion. A perfect picture of corporate greed and disregard for basic human rights, because, after all is said and done, profits count more than people.

Maybe Mr. Lemmon and his wife have not seen the PBS programs about sweatshops. Mainstream media seldom bothers to report on the inhumane working conditions in third world factories. The two young girls who asked me for a contribution for their Nike Marathon have never considered what happens to their counterparts who fall asleep on the job, like these two young girls in the documentary China Blue.

Before free trade agreements allowed the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, many of the shoes and clothing in U.S. retail stores were made in local factories. U.S. workers were protected by our labor laws and many of them also had unions looking out for their interests. U.S. factories were also required to abide by OSHA safety standards and prevented from large scale pollution of the environment. Third world countries have none of these impediments to profit.

Perhaps Nike is trying to brush up it's tarnished image by getting well-meaning people like these local marathoners involved in a charitable cause. Maybe, as they laboriously train for this marathon, in the far recesses of their memory bank, they know that their wonderful and charmed life is subsidized by human misery on a vast scale.

These people with good intentions are the ones who could and should say no to Nike, demand transparency and accountability. By all means, give to the deserving Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. But why not channel that energy used in marathon training into bringing attention to much needed change. These human rights abuses allow our stores to be filled with cheap merchandise, and companies like Nike to give people like Tiger Woods $20 million for an endorsement, while giving virtual slave laborers 20 cents an hour to produce their goods.

I already give yearly donations to several cancer charities. So, after considering these requests for donations to Nike marathoners, I have decided to give instead to a group called Educating For Justice who have produced a film (soon to be released) called SWEAT.

SWEAT is the athlete’s version of Erin Brokovich, The Insider and Serpico. In 1997, a soccer coach at St. John’s University said no to taking part in a $3.5 million dollar deal to endorse Nike products because of Nike’s use of sweatshop labor. He was forced out of his job and outcast from the coaching ranks. People told him that he didn’t know what he was talking about, that work in a Nike factory was a “great job for those people.” He went to find out for himself. In the summer of 2000, he and a friend took off to live with factory workers in a slum in Indonesia and they lived on the workers’ wages, $1.25 a day. They lost 40lbs collectively in the month, but more importantly, by living in solidarity with workers, they built bonds of trust. Over the course of three research trips, workers shared the real human suffering behind the Nike success story. Together with workers, they have spent the past four years educating tens of thousands of people about this issue and fighting to end the injustice that Nike’s workers face each day.

It's difficult to find a running shoe that isn't made in a third world country by slave labor. Nike is the leader in the field of athletic shoes. If they make changes for the better, the industry as a whole will be challenged to follow. Hopefully this film will make an impact, but basically it like a voice crying in the wilderness of sweatshop factories.

Think, Nike marathoners, with every step you take, if your energy and determination could truly be channeled to making a major difference in the world.

Eight Things

Eight things you don't know about me:


1. I wanted to be a concert pianist.

2. I'm a very poor correspondent. Before starting this blog, I had not written more than a brief note or business letter since graduating college in the 60's.

3. My eyesight is bad, so I have difficulty reading blogs with black or navy background, even at 150 magnification.

4. I have never baked a pie.

5. I do not own a cell phone or digital camera.

6. About half of my friends do not own a TV, but all of them have the internet.

7. Since Dan Rather pointed out that CBS has "dumbed it down and tarted it up" I now watch the CBS evening news exclusively.

8. Every room of my house is populated with stacks of books.

I think most everyone in my local blogosphere has completed this little exercise, so I'll let the tag rest.

Hate Radio Is A Part Of Republican Strategy

In an interview in Mother Jones, GOP media strategist David All talks about his efforts to boost the right's utilization of the internet as a campaign tool. He confirms, once again, that hate radio is considered an integral part of GOP strategy:

... We've never needed the Internet before. When talk radio emerged in '94, it was a very taboo thing, and it wasn't until Newt Gingrich brought talk radio hosts into the Capitol that people started to engage talk radio. Now there's an entire strategy focused on it. The White House has a talk radio person, the RNC does, and it's seen as an effective medium. But the Internet-we haven't needed to run around the mainstream media like we do now.

As noted in my post from 9/18/06:

President Bush summoned several hate radio talk show hosts to the White House this past Friday for a 90 minute off-the-record chat.

According to Neil Boortz, " the subject matter ranged through domestic policy, immigration, the war on terror, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Jordan. President Bush talked of the leaders of countries ranging from Great Britain to China to Japan to Iran."

Also in attendance were Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mike Gallagher and Michael Medved. Rush Limbaugh was invited, but was unable to attend.

As someone recently remarked about the Fairness Doctrine - "Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair".


HT: Missouri Politics

Race to the Bottom

From Think Progress:

The economic American dream “that children would be more prosperous than their parents, is in question as perhaps never before.” Since 1973, “median family income has been essentially flat,” and men in their 30s “earn roughly $5,000 less than their father’s generation.”

Bush Asks For Excessive Earmarks

From an article in The Hill:

Bush is criticized for requests from the White House for earmarks to be inserted into legislation. "Legislators say that while Bush has warned them about earmarks, behind the scenes he seeks them just as eagerly as the members of Congress he criticizes."

Bush called out for his earmarks
By Alexander Bolton
June 28, 2007

Democratic and Republican appropriators are accusing President Bush of urging Congress to pack spending bills with pet projects despite his high-profile crackdown on earmarks this year.

A House Appropriations Committee report accompanying legislation funding the Department of the Interior shows that Bush requested 93 of the 321 earmarks in thebill. A panel report for the financial services and general government spending bill showed that Bush requested 17 special projects worth $947 million, more than any single member of Congress.

Senate appropriators have identified more than 350 earmarks in the military construction spending bill requested by the president. Lawmakers say these lists of earmarks are inconsistent with Bush’s tough talk on earmarks this year...

Read the article here.

While financing an irresponsible and immoral war on the U.S. credit card, he has the nerve to demand earmarks. What Republican party is this? It's a different kind of political animal. Have they shunned the elephant and adopted the pig?

Republicans are Creepy, And I'm Not Voting For Them Anymore

I used to be an independent voter. I'm socially liberal, but do tend to be fiscally conservative favoring smaller government and disciplined spending. In the past, I have voted for Republicans who mirrored those views.

During my drive time, I often listen to Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage. Today, Hannity was conversing with a Senator (didn't catch his name) about immigration. The Senator could not get out a full sentence before Hannity was all over him like a mad dog.

Republicans court these creepy media people. This is their "base". The Ann Coulter/Elizabeth Edwards exchange is the perfect example. Republicans have made this woman wealthy; they invite her to give speeches, buy her books, and hang on her every word. But, hey, it's a free country. So...

They can forget about getting my vote until they clean up their act. If I can't stomach the Democratic or Independent candidates in a particular race, I'll just abstain.

Elizabeth Edwards Vs. Ann Coulter

These observations from Shamanic at Newshog do a great job of illustrating the bulk of the right-wing sponsored content that saturates the air waves.

Illustrating the Obvious

Yesterday I saw this video of Elizabeth Edwards' call to Hardball guest Ann Coulter, which revealed Coulter's inherent, vapid nastiness in all its glory. Chris Matthews kept Coulter's feet to the fire, but the bigger question is why he had her on to begin with, and why anyone should consider his show to be even remotely serious about politics as a result.

I do think the episode is revealing for what it illustrates about the state of partisan politics and the media today. Here's my big-picture take on the exchange:

Democrat: I think we should focus on substantive issues instead of personal attacks.

Republican: What personal attacks? Just because your husband dines on the raw corpses of dead babies and molests little boys doesn't mean I think he's a bad guy.

Democrat: This is the kind of negativity that drives people out of the political process.

Republican: YOU WANT TO CENSOR ME!!!

Democrat: Um, are your pens all filled with bile instead of ink?

Republican: YOU CAN'T CENSOR ME! YOU'RE JUST A WOMAN! YOUR HUSBAND GIVES SPEECHES!

Media Guy (doing an excellent impression of a concerned citizen): Why exactly did you say that "The Democratic party works constantly to destroy America, and anyone who votes for a Democrat should be dragged from his house under cover of darkness, hung in the town square, and stoned to death by a grateful community of patriots"?

Republican: Could you read me the sentence?

Next time Chris, instead of asking Coulter questions about the adjectives she uses, invite a real guest on instead. Think of it as donating to charity instead of sending flowers.

The Iraq Refugee Crisis

The good news is that several million Iraqis have escaped the killing field that is now Iraq.

The bad news:

From the Independent:

UN warns of five million Iraqi refugees
Half of displaced people have no access to food aid
By Patrick Cockburn
June 10, 2007

Across Iraq, millions of people are looking for safer places to live, and not finding them. The United Nations High Commission for Refuge (UNHCR) reported last week that 4.2 million Iraqis have been forced out of their homes.

There are also ominous signs that the four-month-old US security plan for Baghdad is failing to reduce the level of violence despite an extra 17,000 US troops in the capital.

"The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UNHCR announced, "with more than two million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside the country and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighbouring states."

The Iraqi refugee crisis is now surpassing in numbers anything ever seen in the Middle East, including the expulsion or flight of the Palestinians in 1948...

This crisis created by our invasion and continued occupation of Iraq has resulted in a refugee population which now outnumbers those of Darfur. Since half of the refugees have no food aid, it is certain that we will see a humanitarian crisis of mammoth proportions.

George W. Bush, this will be your legacy.

McClatchy Headlines

From the McClatchy Washington Bureau: Some of the best coverage available of the Attorney General and DOJ, and Carl Rove misdeeds.

Justice official accused of blocking suits into alleged violations
By Greg Gordon McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Mon, June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — A former Justice Department political appointee blocked career lawyers from filing at least three lawsuits charging local and county governments with violating the voting rights of African-Americans and other minorities, seven former senior department employees charged Monday...

And from yesterday:

Missing White House e-mails may have violated law, panel says
By Ron Hutcheson McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Mon, June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — Presidential adviser Karl Rove sent more than 140,000 e-mails
through the Republican National Committee's computer system, circumventing a federal law intended to guarantee the preservation of presidential records, House of Representatives investigators have concluded...

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins' career as an economic hit man (EHM) has taken him all over the globe. He details his activities as an EHM in his best-seller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and in his new book just released, The Secret History of the American Empire.

His job as an EHM was to persuade third world governments to accept huge loans for modernization programs that would supposedly bring prosperity and economic growth. He was employed by a large contracting firm, MAIN, (no longer in business) similar to Haliburton or Bechtel. In essence, his instructions were to present falsified and very rosy statistics to seal the deal. The unstated goal was to set up a sweetheart deal for U.S. contractors and corporations to build the mammoth infrastructure projects and exploit the labor and natural resources of the countries involved.

The EHM worked in concert with the underbelly of the U.S. government to influence governments in these vulnerable third world nations by whatever means necessary.

Perkins joined the Peace Corps fresh out of college and was assigned to work with the indigenous inhabitants of the rain forest in Ecuador. It was a profound experience and one that gave him unique insight into the lives and struggle of exploited peoples in the countries he would later encounter as an EHM.

His seduction by the money, power, beautiful women and prestige he enjoyed as an EHM was never total and complete. His culpability for the exploitation of the people and devastation of the environment that were the end results of his EHM deals weighed on his conscience.

The end result of his EHM successes resulted in the funnelling of vast amounts of wealth to his corporate masters, and to the corrupt and elite people in positions of power in the countries he had signed deals with. Those governments he failed to persuade were targeted for assasinations and coups fomented by the covert operatives he refers to as "jackals".

Eventually, he resigned his EHM job and moved on in life. After expressing his intention to write about the activities of his former profession, he was alternately threatened and bribed to stay silent. After the events of 9/11, John Perkins felt that his story must be told, whatever the personal consequences. He wrote Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in secret, and after being rejected by every mainstream publisher, finally found a smaller publisher who was willing to risk it.

If you have not read his books, I highly recommend that you do so. The Secret History of the American Empire is just hitting bookstores. It picks up where Confessions left off, and ends on an optimistic note with suggestions about what each of us can do to begin to set things right.

Everyone I know who reads Confessions is profoundly affected to learn of the extent of the global political/corporate corruption described. Most of us sort-of know that the goods we buy at Wal-Mart, other big-box retailers, and malls are produced by people who are little more than virtual slaves working and living in squalid and inhumane conditions, but seldom is anyone in-your-face with proof of it. If this is not a wake-up call, I don't know what will move people to take action, and make changes in their buying habits. The expose of Nike factories is particularly heartbreaking, and they are just an example of the horrendous conditions in most third-world factories producing goods for the U.S. market.

Local blogger Bob Ranney (An Even Keel) has a few observations:

I have recently begun reading a book that will most likely end up next
to "Flyboys" on my list of required reading for all citizens. It is John Perkins', "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".

In it he describes his recruitment, training and actions as an EHM as he and his colleagues call themselves.

It's worth a read just to learn about the existence and day-to-day doings of these folks, but he also includes a good bit of information about the effects of what they do, and the only conclusion a sane person can draw from it all is that our country has long been embarked on a soulless journey that drags everyone it touches through unnecessary hell. Our politicians spout high and mighty morality stories, but the results of their actions are pure evil.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

"Today we see the results of this system run amok.

Executives at our most respected companies hire people at near-slave wages to toil under inhuman conditions in Asisan sweatshops.

Oil companies wantonly pump toxins into rain forest rivers, consciously killing people, animals, and plants, and committing genocide among ancient cultures.

The pharmaceutical industry denies lifesaving medicines to millions of
HIV-infected Africans. Twelve million families in our own United States worry about their next meal.

The energy industry creates an Enron.

The accounting industry creates an Andersen.

The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world's population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995.

The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could
provide clean water, adequate diet, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet.

And we wonder why terrorists attack us?

Bob Ranney ends his remarks with a call to conscience for each of us:

"Putting your life on the line so we can rape another country is not patriotism, it is madness. Isn't it time we stopped? If we want to show our patriotism, why not show it to the world and not just to one country? Why not stand up and shout, "Enough?"

I hear you, Bob.

Thor Hearne's Ties to ACVR Erased on Wikipedia

From today's Brad Blog:

Wikipedia Entry for GOP 'Voter Fraud' Front Group
Co-Founder, Thor Hearne, Scrubbed of References to ACVR
Latest Edit Performed by Someone at Hearne's Lawfirm, Lathrop & Gage, According to Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog...

Mark F. "Thor" Hearne must really want to hide something about
his discredited past as the front man for the GOP front group calling themselves the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR).

In the latest chapter of a string of attempts by Hearne to cleanse his public record as lead snake-oil salesman of the mysteriously-funded "non-partisan" group that he founded to push propaganda about a massive (if non-existent) Democratic 'voter fraud' epidemic, it seems his Wikipedia page has been expurgated of all references to the ACVR...

Read the entire article here.

Please Say No To School Vouchers

The Turner Report has given us two recent summaries of Matt Blunt's attempt to load the State Board of Education with voucher supporters, exemplified by his recent nomination to the board of yet another voucher supporter, former state rep, Derio Gambaro.

The governor's resolve to do away with public education in Missouri is fueled by big donations from wealthy supporters of a voucher system. Now that there are no upper limits on campaign donations, their money is filling up Blunt's campaign chest to overflowing.

With a roll-over Republican majority in the state legislature , vouchers could be foisted on the people of Missouri before they can blink an eye.

Concerning Blunt's first appointment to the State Board of Education, Randy Turner has this to say:

Unfortunately, no one put the governor's first board appointment, Debi
Demien of Wentzville, under the microscope. She was promoted as a former public
schoolteacher and director of marketing for Demien Construction. A little bit of
digging would have shown that the Southwest Missouri State University graduate
is far more than that.

It appears all three of the governor's choices are closely in line with his
thinking on vouchers, meaning he most likely has the power to move state
education in whatever direction he wishes.

Mrs. Demien was appointed to the board in March. While it was noted that
she was involved in the family business, Demien Construction, what wasn't noted
is that she is director of marketing for the company's Building God's
Way division, which builds churches and Christian schools. Any sort of
movement of public money into private schools will obviously benefit Mrs.
Demien.

Seven years ago, she wrote a book entitled Stealing America, the
National Takeover of the Economy, Education and State
Governments, which primarily criticizes the school-to-work programs
being used in public schools. She is an outspoken critic of Missouri's A+
program, which allows students involved in the program to receive free schooling
at Missouri community colleges.

Please read The Turner Report articles linked below for his excellent coverage of the voucher issue:

Voucher Supporters Are Blunt's Biggest Contributors (6/11/07)

Blunt Appoints Another Voucher Proponent to State Board of Education (6/08/07)

It Started Before Donayle Whitmore-Smith (12/17/06)

Blunt Appoints Leading Voucher Proponent to State Board of Education (10/26/06)