Sub-Topics 2005 2006 Archives 2003 Archives 2004 Archives 2005 Framing the Questions Iraq Also Try Civil Liberties and Security Conservative Views Election Fraud Election Reform Environmental Protection Multicultural Presidential Election 2008 Religion and Politics World Peace Donations Helping Victims of Katrina (Veterans for Peace) Provides information about helping in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. 9-05 Lesson Plans News on Washington DC and the World (McClatchy News) Formerly "Knight Ridder," a media company that owns 32 papers. McClatchy was one of the first media companies to provide stories from outside of the United States and deep inside the U.S. intelligence community regarding errors in mainstream media coverage of the justification for war in Iraq. 06-07 Lists Alternative Media (MichaelMoore.com) Describes alternative media, mostly with progressive views. 10-04 Editorial - Will Fundamentalism Win? (InterfaithAlliance.org) Suggests that fundamentalism will prevail in the near future. Also suggests six ways that fundamentalism will recede in influence. "Sixth, fundamentalism sooner or later turns on God, seeking to erase mystery, to find an endorsement for partisanship, and to secure a blessing for raw aggression by reshaping God in its own image and, thus, making God small enough to manage for its own purposes." " 'Unfaithful to its own insistence on the priority of biblical truth, fundamentalism now evaluates religious authenticity on the basis of a person’s position related to select social-political issues. If the frightened-to-the-point-of-panic jailer described in the New Testament epistles today posed the urgent question to fundamentalists that he hurled at the apostle Paul in the first century, 'What must I do to be saved?' I have a feeling that the response would not be 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ' but 'oppose abortion, condemn gay marriage, support vouchers for financing private education, and affirm posting the Ten Commandments in public places.' ” 11-04 News Stories About the Bush Administration (DoYouKnow.org) Provides links to news stories about positions and policies of the Bush administration that progressives will probably not like. 10-04 Materials -NOW Videos and Transcripts (PBS.org - Moyers) Provides "a full listing of NOW broadcasts by week. Simply click on the show date to find a full listing of each week's Web-only features, the show transcript and related resources." 11-04 Multimedia -08-06-08 Paris Hilton Responds to McCain's Ad (FunnyorDie.com) Presidential candidate John McCain included Paris Hilton in a political ad against Barack Obama. This is her light-hearted response. 08-08 Discussions on Progressive Issues (JusticeTalking.org) Provides debates on progressive issues. 7-03 NPR Hourly News (NPR.org) Provides radio news. 7-03 News -01 Fact or Falsehood Regarding McCain? (Politifact.com) In an attempt to discredit political opponents, presidential candidates have, on occasion, distorted the facts. Provides facts to back up its ratings of statements by candidates on a "Truth-O-Meter." The statements of candidates, including ads, can go from True to "Pants on Fire." 09-08 -01 Fact or Falsehood Regarding Obama? (Politifact.com) In an attempt to discredit political opponents, presidential candidates have, on occasion, distorted the facts. Provides facts to back up its ratings of statements by candidates on a "Truth-O-Meter." The statements of candidates, including ads, can go from True to "Pants on Fire." 09-08 -01 Fact or Falsehood? (FactCheck.org - Annenberg Public Policy Center) In an attempt to discredit political opponents, presidential candidates have, on occasion, distorted the facts. The Annenberg Public Policy Center checks allegations to determine if the facts are presented truthfully. Provides links to original sources of information when "debunking" a statement. The site quotes Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." 09-08 -01 Fact or Falsehood? (Politifact.com) In an attempt to discredit political opponents, presidential candidates have, on occasion, distorted the facts. Provides facts to back up its ratings of statements by candidates on a "Truth-O-Meter." The statements of candidates, including ads, can go from True to "Pants on Fire." 09-08 -01-04-08 Editorial: Everything You Heard in the VP Debate Is Wrong (New York Times) "Since the vice presidential debate on Thursday night, two opposing myths have quickly taken hold about Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. The first, advanced by her supporters, is that she made it through a gantlet of fire; the second, embraced by her detractors, is that her speaking style betrays her naïveté. Both are wrong." "The concerns raised by the Couric interviews — that Ms. Palin memorizes talking points rather than grasping issues — should not be allayed by her performance in the forgiving format of a debate." "The impression fits with the overall theme that Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain have been trying to advance: that expertise is overrated, homespun sincerity is better than sophistication, conviction is more important than analysis." "Being able to see Russia from Alaska, then, means you have an understanding of foreign policy; living in an Arctic state means that you have an understanding of climate change." 10-08 -01-04-08 Editorial: Palin Has It Wrong on the Role of Vice President (New York Times) "In all the talk about the vice-presidential debate, there was an issue that did not get much attention but kept nagging at us: Sarah Palin’s description of the role and the responsibilities of the office for which she is running, vice president of the United States." "Any president deserves a vice president who will be a sound adviser and trustworthy supporter. But the American people also deserve and need a vice president who understands and respects the balance of power — and the limits of his or her own power. That is fundamental to our democracy." "So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong." 10-08 -01-04-08 Editorial: Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain (New York Times) "With a month to go, the 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race — about 'the future,' as Palin kept saying Thursday night — and the only person who doesn’t seem to know it is Mr. Past, poor old John McCain." 10-08 -01-04-08 Editorial: Talking in Points (New York Times) "This entire election season has been a long-running saga about the rise of women in American politics. On Thursday, it all went sour. The people boosting Palin’s triumph were not celebrating because she demonstrated that she is qualified to be president if something ever happened to John McCain. They were cheering her success in covering up her lack of knowledge about the things she would have to deal with if she wound up running the country." 10-08 -01-11-07 A Cynical Deconstruction of Bush's Speech (MSNBC Hardblogger) Bob Shrum comments on President Bush's speech on January 10th, 2007. 01-07 -01-11-07 How Republicans Win If Iraq Is Lost (LATimes.com) "IF YOU THINK the growing similarity between Iraq and Vietnam is tragic but inadvertent, you're not being cynical enough." "The surge makes Bush look, as Goldberg suggests, like he really wants to win, even as he refuses to take the necessary and honest steps to mitigate the terrible damage we've already done. The surge buys time — and meanwhile, the Democratic Party is placed in the same untenable position it was in during the last stages of the Vietnam War." 01-07 -04-02-07 Ex-Aide Loses Faith in Bush (New York Times) "A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist." "Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced." 04-07 -04-16-08 ABC News: Condi Rice Approved Use of Torture (CondiMustGo.com) Provides evidence that the Secretary of State directly approved use of torture during some interrogations. 05-08 -04-25-07 Editorial: Guiliani Is Exploitating Fear to Gain Power (MSNBC - Olbermann) "At least that Republican president under which we have not been safer has, even at his worst, maintained some microscopic distance between himself and a campaign platform that blithely threatened the American people with 'casualties' if they, next year, elect a Democratic president — or, inferring from Mr. Giuliani’s flights of grandeur in New Hampshire — even if they elect a different Republican." 04-07 -05-10-06 Polls: Conservatives Fleeing Bush (MSNBC News) "Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data." 05-06 -06-13-06 Editorial: News Topics Beyond Control of Mainstream Media (SeattelPI.com) "The blogosphere has been abuzz. But in the days since Rolling Stone magazine published a long piece that accused Republicans of widespread and intentional cheating that affected the outcome of the last presidential election, the silence in America's establishment media has been deafening." 06-06 -07-01-06 Rainbow Family to Sue Federal Government (Guardian Unlimited) "A founding member of a hippie movement called the Rainbow Family suggested Saturday that it launch a federal lawsuit against a growing crackdown on their annual gatherings." 07-06 -07-19-06 Report: The IQ's of Recent Presidents (Lovenstein Insititute) "Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others." "According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 60 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking." "The six Republican presidents of the past 60 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155. President G. W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91." 07-06 -07-21-06 DNC: Hand Counting Needed for CD-50 Race (BradBlog.com) "In a harshly worded statement, the DNC's Voting Rights Institute has issued a statement condemning the administration of the recent U.S. House race between Democrat Francine Busby and Republican Brian Bilbray, joining a growing national outcry in calling for 'a swift and verifiable 'manual count' of all 150,000 ballots cast in California's 50th District's 'bellwether' June 6th special election." 07-06 -07-22-06 Republican Mind, Democratic Mind (ABC News) "The last presidential campaign was one of the nastiest in recent history, but tantalizing new research suggests that even in the midst of that bitter battle, partisan voters didn't want to buy into it." 07-06 -07-28-08 Editorial: How Obama Became Acting President (New York Times) "He never would have been treated as a president-in-waiting by heads of state or network talking heads if all he offered were charisma, slick rhetoric and stunning visuals. What drew them instead was the raw power Mr. Obama has amassed: the power to start shaping events and the power to move markets, including TV ratings. (Even “Access Hollywood” mustered a 20 percent audience jump by hosting the Obama family.) Power begets more power, absolutely." 07-08 -08-07-08 McCain Ads: Subliminal Message or Innocent Levity? (Time.com) "Sapp knows that the phrasing and images could just be dismissed as a peculiar coincidence. After all, it was Oprah Winfrey who told an Iowa crowd that Obama was 'the one!' But, he insists, 'the frequency of these images and references don't make any sense unless you're trying to send the message that Obama could be the Antichrist.' Mara Vanderslice, another Democratic consultant who handled religious outreach for the 2004 Kerry campaign, agrees. 'If they wanted to be funny, if they really wanted to play up the idea that Obama thinks he's the Second Coming, there were better ways to do it,' she says. 'Why use these awkward lines like, "And the world will receive his blessings"?' 08-08 -09-03-08 American Wife, a Fictional Laura Bush (Time.com) "It is a classic story. the demure small-town librarian swept off her feet by the handsome prince — a story with its roots in Cinderella ... and also, in this case, in the rather unbelievable recent history of our country." 09-08 -09-03-08 Editorial: Misleading Claims Made at the Republican Convention (FactCheck.org) "Joe Lieberman and his former Senate colleague Fred Thompson both made misleading claims about Obama in their prime time GOP convention speeches on Tuesday. We've heard two of them before – many times." 09-08 -09-04-08 Editorial: Fact Check on Palin's Speech (Washington Monthly - Hilzoy) "Palin: 'But listening to him [Obama] speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.' " Hilzoy contradicts Governor Sarah Palin's statement with a list of Obama's achievements and a statement: "I gave a rundown of Obama's accomplishments in the Senate here. They include the Lugar-Obama bill on nonproliferation, and an ethics reform package that the Washington Post called 'the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet.' " 09-08 -09-04-08 Editorial: Reversals in McCain's Key Positions (TheCarpetBaggerReport.com) "It’s obvious that the McCain campaign and the RNC have decided to go after Barack Obama as a flip-flopper. What’s equally obvious, though, that Republicans couldn’t have chosen a worse narrative." 09-08 -09-14-08 Editorial: Making America Strong (New York Times - Friedman) "Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about." "There is no strong leader without a strong country. And posing as one, to use the current vernacular, is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig." 09-08 -09-14-08 Study: 'The Power of Positive Unthinking" (New York Times - Dowd) Gov. Sarah Palin's "explosion onto the scene made Obama seem even more like a windy, wispy egghead. Like W., Sarah has the power of positive unthinking. But now we may want to think about where ignorance and pride and no self-doubt has gotten us. Being quick on the trigger might be good in moose hunting, but in dealing with Putin, a little knowledge might come in handy." 09-08 -09-21-08 Editorial: No Blank Check for Wall Street (Credo.com) "Congress is on the brink of making a one-sided deal to give George W. Bush a blank check to bail out his pals - offering nearly (or perhaps more than) a trillion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street to cover its bad debts. That works out to somewhere between $2000 and $5000 from every American family. So what do the taxpayers get in return?" "Nothing. No new regulation or oversight to help avoid this kind of crisis in the future. No public interest givebacks to help people whose homes are in the hands of the banks. Perhaps most shockingly of all, the taxpayers get absolutely no share in the profits if and when these finance giants bounce back, even though we are now assuming a great deal of the risk." "This is worse than a bad deal - this isn't a deal at all." 09-08 -10-05-08 Editorial: Governor Palin Is a Master of the Nonanswer (Christian Science Monitor) "I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do." "And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level." 10-08 -10-06-08 When Regulators Look the Other Way (Baltimore Sun) "Confident men took leave of common sense and bet on the idea of perpetual profit in the real estate market and crashed. But it wasn't their money. It was your money they were messing with. And that's why you need government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say, 'This is a scam and a hustle, and either you cease and desist or you spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing backgammon.' " 10-08 -10-13-06 Air America Files for Bankruptcy (Washington Times) "Air America Radio, the liberal talk and news radio network that features comedian Al Franken, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday but will stay on air as it reorganizes with funding from its investor group." 10-06 -10-30-06 Limbaugh's Inaccurate Statements (MSNBC News) "But the winner, comedian Rush Limbaugh, having buried himself by calling Michael J. Fox a faker in those Missouri campaign ads. Having put up his own headstone by saying the symptoms a Parkinson’s suffer gets when he stops taking his medication include shaking, actually it’s immobility." 10-06 -10-30-06 Report from Oaxaca (DemocracyNow.org) "Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent in thousands of federal police to Oaxaca to crush the popular uprising there. We go to Oaxaca to speak with Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca." 10-06 -10-31-06 Election Day Fraud Assessment (Scoop.co.nz) "The 25 races below are all within the margin of error or tied. Therefore, they are the likeliest contests to target for fraud or 'digital disruption.' They need to be monitored now, throughout election day, thereafter. While candidates claim and concede victory, the vote counting continues for days after any elections. (N.B. No candidate can claim victory or concede a loss absent a final vote count. The votes belong to the people. They are not the emotional and political proxy for exuberant or despondent aspiring public servants.)" 10-06 -10-31-06 Microtargeting and Domestic Spying (MyDD.com) "Today a staggering amount of personal information is being collected by the government on millions of Americans. This information is being used to compile a massive social network of American citizens that we are told is for the purpose of identifying terrorist cells. But others say it is easy for terrorists to avoid being caught up into this type of data-mining. I find it curious that what may be of little value in uncloaking terrorist cells is precisely the type of data-mining you would dream about for political election microtargeting." "Why have Republicans recently won some close elections by margins that surprised many analysts?" The Republican's had a 'get out the vote' (GOTV) advantage. The advantage came from having long lists of Independents and even Democrats who were likely to vote for a Republican candidate this time that were compiled using modern microtargeting techniques. These groups tend to be very difficult to identify for GOTV efforts. But if you can identify them and get them to the polls to vote in a close election, it can make the difference." 10-06 -Editorial: A Cynical View of "The Surge" (MSNBC News) "The likelihood of Maliki stepping up to the task [of controlling the Shiite militia] is so remote that some lawmakers see the Bush surge as a kind of secret exit plan. In their view, Bush knows he’s got a bad deal, and Maliki will never purge the Mahdi army; when the Iraqi prime minister fails to deliver, Bush can blame the Iraqis for being weak and feckless and corrupt, and begin to withdraw U.S. troops. Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski dubs this scenario 'blame and run.' " "There is [also] a widespread view that the war is lost, and Bush is postponing the inevitable until after he leaves office—or worse, preparing to widen the war to Iran and Syria rather than accept defeat." 01-07 -Editorial: A Special Comment About Lying (MSNBC News) "The president of the United States — unbowed, undeterred and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: the Democrats." 10-06 -Editorial: Bush and Cheney Should Resign (MSNBC News) " 'I didn’t vote for him,' an American once said, 'But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.' " "That—on this eve of the 4th of July—is the essence of this democracy, in 17 words. And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby." "Watergate—instantaneously—became a simpler issue: a President overruling the inexorable march of the law of insisting—in a way that resonated viscerally with millions who had not previously understood - that he was the law." "Not the Constitution. Not the Congress. Not the Courts. Just him." "Just - Mr. Bush - as you did, yesterday." 07-07 -Editorial: Checks and Balances on the President During Wartime (The New Republic.com - Levy) "The executive branch has declared itself to be the sole legitimate judge of the scope of its own authority during wartime--even in the domestic arena, even when the subject matter permits congressional and judicial participation, and even when Congress has already acted. Each of the other assertions of power over the past several years suddenly seems dramatically more ominous against the background of this rejection of separation of powers. It's legally conceivable that the president has the authority to detain suspected unlawful combatants during wartime. But if the executive is the sole judge of whether that position is constitutionally correct, then the separation of powers doctrine at the heart of the American constitutional order is in serious jeopardy." 01-06 -Editorial: Clintons Have History of Ties to Colombians (Huffington Post) "The story of how [Bill] Clinton helped funnel all that money to Colombia is a textbook case of much that is wrong with the way our political system operates." "For instance, to avoid resistance from those who did not believe this was the best way to spend over a billion in taxpayer dollars, the Clinton administration decided to introduce the Colombian aid as part of a larger emergency-spending package -- bundling the potentially controversial measure with proposals to provide $2.2 billion for relief from natural disasters, and $854 million for military health care. It's an old legislative ploy designed to squelch debate and force politicians to vote for wasteful -- or even terrible -- measures just because they don't want to be painted as being against God, country, and disaster relief." 04-08 -Editorial: Death of Habeas Corpus (MSNBC News - Keith Olbermann) Congress passed a law that now allows the President, on his own, to decide who is an enemy. Such a person can then be placed in prison without trial, a court hearing, or any legal process to determine if he or she really is an enemy of the United States. This law is a clear violation of basic rights according to legal scholars, such as Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Judicial Committee of Congress. Keith Olbermann notes, "The reality is without habeas corpus, a lot of other rights lose their meaning. But if you look at the actual Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments of that pesky Constitution, you’ll see just how many remain for your protection." "So as you can see, even without habeas corpus, at least one tenth of the Bill of Rights, I guess that’s the Bill of Right, now—remains virtually intact. No. 3 is still safe." "We can rest easy knowing that we will never, ever have to quarter soldiers in our homes as long as the third amendment still stands strong." 10-06 -Editorial: Elephant in the Polling Booth (WashingtonSpectator.com - Mark Crispin Miller) "And so the Democrats are feeling good, and calling for a giant drive to get the vote out on Election Day. Such an effort is essential—and not just to the Democrats but to the very survival of this foundering Republic. However, such a drive will do the Democrats, and all the rest of us, more harm than good if it fails to note a certain fact about our current situation: i.e., that the Democrats are going to lose the contest in November, even though the people will (again) be voting for them. The Bush Republicans are likely to remain in power despite the fact that only a minority will vote to have them there. That, at any rate, is what will happen if we don't start working to pre-empt it now." 10-06 -Editorial: Evangelical Leaders Pushing Politics Are Losing Credibility (Time.com) "If Giuliani captures the nomination [for president in 2008] despite the threat of an evangelical revolt [by evangelical leaders], it will be a long time before Republican strategists pay attention to the demands of conservative Christian leaders again." "For the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the Republican Party has dipped below 50 percent, with the sharpest falloff again among the young, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow at Pew and an expert on religion and politics. (The defectors by and large say they’ve become independents, not Democrats, according to the polls.)" Frank Page, president-elect of the Southern Baptist Convention, "told convention delegates that Southern Baptists had become known too much for what they were against (abortion, evolution, homosexuality) instead of what they stand for (the Gospel)." 10-07 -Editorial: Reaction to Bush's Plans to Expand War Into Iran (MSNBC News) "Only this president, only in this time, only with this dangerous, even messianic certitude, could answer a country demanding an exit strategy from Iraq, by offering an entrance strategy for Iran." 01-07 -Editorial: Spreading Cancer by Bob Koehler (CommonWonders.com) "As we 'protected ourselves,' in the words of the president, from Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction, we opened our own arsenal of WMD on them, contaminating the country’s soil and polluting its air — indeed, unleashing a nuclear dust into the troposphere and contaminating the whole world." 10-06 -Editorial: The All-White Elephant in the Room (New York Times) "It is entirely fair for any voter to weigh Mr. Obama’s long relationship with his pastor in assessing his fitness for office. It is also fair to weigh Mr. Obama’s judgment in handling this personal and political crisis as it has repeatedly boiled over. But whatever that verdict, it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn’t a double standard operating here. If we’re to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates — and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them — we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick." "Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church." "That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive 'holy war' with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton." 05-08 -Editorial: The All-White Elephant in the Room (Time.com) "It is entirely fair for any voter to weigh Mr. Obama’s long relationship with his pastor in assessing his fitness for office. It is also fair to weigh Mr. Obama’s judgment in handling this personal and political crisis as it has repeatedly boiled over. But whatever that verdict, it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn’t a double standard operating here. If we’re to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates — and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them — we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick." "Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church." "That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive 'holy war' with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton." 05-08 -Editorial: The Need for Network Neutrality (The Nation) "The Stevens bill not only proposes to scuttle network neutrality rules but also undermines key policies designed to insure community influence over how broadband networks serve the public interest--including the ability of American soldiers stationed overseas to phone home." 10-06 -Editorial: The Need for Progressive Mass Media (The Nation) "Under the radar of all but the most savvy Internet users, powerful commercial forces are rapidly creating a digital media system for the United States that threatens to undermine our ability to create a civil and just society. The takeover of YouTube by Google announced October 9 and the 2005 buyout by Rupert Murdoch of MySpace are not just about mega-deals for new media. They are the leading edge of a powerful interactive system that is being designed to serve the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet." 10-06 -Editorial: What Keeps Rumsfeld Up at Night (Huffington Post) "For Don Rumsfeld the problem isn't that we are not winning the war in Iraq, the problem is that we are not properly spinning the war in Iraq." 08-06 -Editorials: Bob Koehler on Progressive Issues (CommonWonders.com) Provides editorials on progressive issues.10-06 02-01-07 Thom Hartmann to Replace Al Frankin on Air America (BlueOregon.com) "Yesterday, Al Franken announced that he'll end his run on Air America on February 14. He's widely reported to be considering running for the US Senate in Minnesota in 2008 - against Senator Norm Coleman (R)." "In a number of communities across the country, the Al Franken Show had already been replaced by the nationally syndicated Thom Hartmann Show. Now, all the remaining Air America venues will also shift to the Thom Hartmann Show - extending Thom's reach to some 75-80 stations." 01-07 Air America Radio (AirAmericaRadio.com) Provides news from a progressive view. 10-04 Editorial: Democrats Are Enthusiastic About Presidential Candidates (MSNBC News) "Clinton and Obama are generating an enthusiasm among Democrats not seen since Kennedy was in the White House." 02-07 Editorial: Self-Promoting Values and a Sham (New York Times) "But despite Rudy’s fleeting stabs at fudging his views, they are well known now, and still he leads in national polls of Republican voters and is neck and neck with Fred Thompson in the Bible Belt sanctuary of South Carolina." "But the most obvious explanation is the one that Washington resists because it contradicts the city’s long-running story line. Namely, that the political clout ritualistically ascribed to Mr. Perkins, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Gary Bauer of American Values and their ilk is a sham." "These self-promoting values hacks don’t speak for the American mainstream. They don’t speak for the Republican Party. They no longer speak for many evangelical ministers and their flocks. The emperors of morality have in fact had no clothes for some time. Should Rudy Giuliani end up doing a victory dance at the Republican convention, it will be on their graves." 10-07 Editorials and News (The Nation) Provides progressives views on current events. 11-04 Elections Reform (National Voting Rights Institute) "Founded in 1994, the National Voting Rights Institute is a prominent non-partisan legal center in the campaign finance reform field. Through litigation and public education, the Institute aims to redefine the issue of private money in public elections as the nation's newest voting rights barrier, and to vindicate the constitutional right of all citizens, regardless of their economic status, to participate in the electoral process on an equal and meaningful basis." 12-04 Elections Reform (People for the American Way) "The myth that the 2004 elections ran smoothly has become conventional wisdom for pundits and politicians, but nothing could be further from the truth. A preliminary review released today by members of the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition demonstrates that persistent problems continue to deny millions of Americans their fundamental voting rights, and makes the case for election reform at the local, state and national level." 12-04 Grassroots for America (GrassrootsforAmerica.us) Provides information on Grassroots for America, a progressive activist group. 12-04 Independent Progressive Politics Network (IPPN.org) The IPPN was established for "building a unified, independent, progressive alternative to the corporate controlled, two-party, economic/political system." 01-05 People for the American Way (PFAW.org) Provides progressive news. 9-05 Progressive Democrats of America (PDAmerica.org) Provides information on Progressive Democrats of America, an new political party established by Howard Dean, former Democratic candidate for president. 12-04 Progressive News (CommonDreams.org) Provides news on activities of progressives. 12-04 Progressive News (FreePress.org) Provides progressive views on current political events. 1-05 Progressive News (OpEdNews.com) Provides news from a progressive point of view. 10-06 The Alliance for Democracy (TheAllianceforDemocracy.org) "The Alliance believes the development of a full public funding system is the crucial domestic reform of our age and that the achievement of such a system will dramatically improve the health of our democracy -- a democracy that is being smothered under the weight of large corporations and the private interests they embody." 12-04 Papers -01 Why Progressives Do Not Understand Conservatives (Social Justice Research) "Researchers in moral psychology and social justice have agreed that morality is about matters of harm, rights, and justice. On this definition of morality, conservative opposition to social justice programs appears to be immoral, and has been explained as a product of various non-moral processes such as system justification or social dominance orientation. In this article we argue that, from an anthropological perspective, the moral domain is usually much broader, encompassing many more aspects of social life and valuing institutions as much or more than individuals. We present theoretical and empirical reasons forbelieving that there are five psychological systems that provide the foundationsfor the world s many moralities. The five foundations are psychological preparations for detecting and reacting emotionally to issues related to harm/care,fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity.Political liberals have moral intuitions primarily based upon the first twofoundations, and therefore misunderstand the moral motivations of politicalconservatives, who generally rely upon all five foundations." 09-08 -Editorial - Bush's Vision for Foreign Policy An Old Tradition (ForeignPolicy.com) "Not since Richard Nixon’s conduct of the war in Vietnam has a U.S. president’s foreign policy so polarized the country—and the world. Yet as controversial as George W. Bush’s policies have been, they are not as radical a departure from his predecessors as both critics and supporters proclaim. Instead, the real weaknesses of the president’s foreign policy lie in its contradictions: Blinded by moral clarity and hamstrung by its enormous military strength, the United States needs to rebalance means with ends if it wants to forge a truly effective grand strategy." "A recent Rand Corporation study concludes that the most important determinants of a successful occupation are related to the 'level of effort—measured in time, manpower, and money.' Bush’s domestic agenda simply does not allow for this level of effort, and he shows no inclination to alter his programs at home in order to effect his strategic vision abroad." 10-04 -Editorial: Al Gore in '08? (ABC News) "Make no mistake: Former Vice President Al Gore will be our next president." "I am as confident about that assertion as I am that George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst president ever." 02-07 -Editorial: Bush Has Built a Radical Regime (OpenDemocracy.net - Blumenthal) "Ultimately, a people is responsible for its leaders. Bush's legacy will precipitate a crisis over democracy that only the American people can resolve." 09-06 -Editorial: Bush Is in Credibility Gulch (CBS News) "The Bush administration has again come after its captors with guns blazing in a daring attempt to escape from Credibility Gulch, a dangerous place for a president to get trapped. Even so, the escape plan may be backfiring." "Here is the part of the president's response to his critics (and not just the Democratic ones) that made them so ornery so fast:" " 'The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them.' " "The 'demoralizing our boys and comforting the enemy' line is a last ditch, McCarthy-lite gambit that doesn't work in this country. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon used it to fill their credibility gaps, without success. It was cheap and cowardly then and it still is now." "(Here's [Republican Senator Chuck] Hagel on the administration's new counter-offensive: 'The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them.' ") 12-05 -Editorial: Bush Response to a Disaster (Los Angeles Times) "New Orleans is, or should be, the graveyard of the conservative ideology that government is useless. An American city is reduced to Third World desperation as people who own nothing scrounge for necessities in a sea of waste and federal officials offer lame excuses about how their disaster plans would have worked fine had there not been, you know, a disaster." 9-05 -Editorial: Checks and Balances on the President - Questions for Alito (The Nation) Provides questions for the Senate Judiciary Committee to put to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. 01-06 -Editorial: Judge Alito Treats Women Like Girls (Slate.com) "Now, I'm seeing two arguments there. One is that the woman has some kind of misperception about her marriage or her situation, and her husband can set her straight. And the other argument is that the husband has such a profound interest in keeping the fetus alive—and his wife has such a small interest in controlling what happens to her body—that the government can force her to consult him even if she's so afraid of him, or so certain she can't have this baby, that she won't talk to him unless we threaten her with criminal charges. And you implied that Justice O'Connor, the justice you're planning to replace on this court, would agree with you." "In point of fact, you were wrong about that, weren't you, Judge? I mean, we have the actual answer to that question, because Justice O'Connor, along with Justices Kennedy and Souter, wrote the Supreme Court's controlling opinion in Casey a year after you issued your dissent. And she pretty flatly rebuked you, didn't she?" 11-05 -Editorial: Lou Dobbs: Our "Leaders" Are "Out of Touch" (CNN News) "Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital." 05-06 -Editorial: Moderate Voters Aren't So Moderate (CBS News) "There is no doubt that the difference between the number of people who tell pollsters they are conservatives and those who say they are liberals should be a matter of concern for Democrats. But if they respond to that concern by 'moving' to an imagined 'center' — in other words, by making their positions on issues more conservative — they will find themselves in an even worse hole than they are now. The Democrats' 'liberal' problem isn't about issues, it's about identity." "In fact, the people who call themselves 'moderates' aren't midway between the two parties. When you examine them as a group, you find that they look much more like liberals than conservatives. 12-05 -Editorial: Overcoming Our National Polarity (NoneSoBlind.org) Schmookler argues that "it is essential for those who oppose the forces presently ruling America to remember that the heart of the problem is not that these ruling powers are too conservative, or that they are too aligned with 'traditional' rather than 'progressive' values." "To wage the struggle in those terms is not only to misunderstand the nature of our adversary. It is also to continue to fall into the trap that they have so successfully set for their opposition, and to abet their continuing seduction of millions of good people on the conservative side of America’s cultural divide. It is to help foster that spirit of divisiveness on which they feed." "The heart of the problem, rather, is that these powers are not what they pretend to be. The darkness of the spirit that animates them is manifest in their ruthlessness and arrogance and dishonesty." "Only by selling their false image of righteousness to good, conservative Americans could these forces gain power. But that which depends on moral lies can be defeated with moral truth—for, if these good people can be helped to see that these emperors have no moral clothes, they will withdraw their support." 12-05 -Editorial: Pass the Bread (CommonDreams.org - Bill Moyers) "Bread is life. But if you're like me you have a thousand and more times repeated the ordinary experience of eating bread without a thought for the process that brings it to your table. The reality is physical: I need this bread to live. But the reality is also social: I need others to provide the bread. I depend for bread on hundreds of people I don't know and will never meet. If they fail me, I go hungry. If I offer them nothing of value in exchange for their loaf, I betray them. The people who grow the wheat, process and store the grain, and transport it from farm to city; who bake it, package it, and market it--these people and I are bound together in an intricate reciprocal bargain. We exchange value." "This reciprocity sustains us." 06-06 -Editorial: Pass the Bread (CommonDreams.org - Bill Moyers) "Bread is life. But if you're like me you have a thousand and more times repeated the ordinary experience of eating bread without a thought for the process that brings it to your table. The reality is physical: I need this bread to live. But the reality is also social: I need others to provide the bread. I depend for bread on hundreds of people I don't know and will never meet. If they fail me, I go hungry. If I offer them nothing of value in exchange for their loaf, I betray them. The people who grow the wheat, process and store the grain, and transport it from farm to city; who bake it, package it, and market it--these people and I are bound together in an intricate reciprocal bargain. We exchange value." "This reciprocity sustains us." 06-06 -Editorial: Republicans Have a Simple Message, Democrats Don't (CBS News - Meyer) "Democrats need to do two simple things: look at the 2005 party fundraising reports and read the speech Karl Rove delivered last Friday to the Republican National Committee. A whole lot will get real simple if they do that. They'll realize they need a boatload more money and some knockout punch lines for campaign debates." "The 2006 GOP/Rove platform can easily be put on an index card, if not a Post-it note. It reads something like this: we are at war against foreign terrorists who want to kill you and your society and we'll do what it takes to stop it and the Democrats won't; we will cut your taxes and give you money and Democrats won't. Every Republican candidate in the country can spit that one out." 01-06 -Editorial: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns (MediaMatters.org) "This project did something that has never been done before: It amassed data on the syndicated columnists published by nearly every daily newspaper in the country. While a few publications, most notably Editor & Publisher, cover the syndicated newspaper industry, no one has attempted to comprehensively assemble this information prior to now. Because the syndicates refuse to reveal to the public exactly where their columnists are published, when Media Matters for America set out to make a systematic assessment of the syndicated columnist landscape, we had no choice but to contact each paper individually and ask which syndicated columnists are published on their op-ed pages." "The results show that in paper after paper, state after state, and region after region, conservative syndicated columnists get more space than their progressive counterparts." 09-07 -Kerry's Vision for Foreign Policy and the Nation (ForeignPolicy.com) "As a party, Democrats need to talk about all the things that strengthen and protect the United States. We need to have a vision that extends to the world around us, and we should remember that this vision is as old as our party." 10-04 -Kerry's Vision for Security - The Challenge (ForeignPolicy.com) "Americans have the worst of both worlds: an administration that has not done enough to strengthen our domestic security but has done far too much to isolate us in the world." "In short, today there is still no comprehensive strategy for domestic security." "A comprehensive approach to domestic security must include initiatives to find and track terrorists through better intelligence, to improve border security and target protection, and to do as much as possible to enhance domestic readiness. I have outlined proposals in each of these areas, and I believe acting on them must be an urgent priority." "Yet making the United States safe at home is only the first step—we also have to do much better to make the United States safe in the world." 10-04 10 Principles to Promote World Peace (TrueMajority.org) Provides a revision of the U.S. budget away from cold war weaponry and toward economic health for all. 6-03 12-Step Program for Regime Change (Alternet.org - Hazen) "Each day, millions of frustrated Americans engage in discussions about how our country has gone off course and how ultraconservatives have taken over our government. As we put our hearts and souls into figuring out how to achieve regime change at home in November 2004, these conversations are growing in volume." "To help us win in 2004, how about organizing a progressive electoral movement that becomes a force in the election by not picking one of the candidates in the primaries? Instead we'll raise money, develop an active base nationwide and effectively target key swing states. We earn our credibility by working while the primaries are underway, building an infrastructure that is ready to roll the last four months of the campaign on behalf of whomever the Democrats nominate." 6-03 Alternet (Alternet.org) Provides a progressive view of government. 6-03 American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACSLAW.org) "The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is one of the nation's leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS is comprised of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, policymakers, activists and other concerned individuals who are working to ensure that the fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice are in their rightful, central place in American law." "ACS is committed to fostering a progressive vision of the law on issues such as access to the courts; anti-discrimination and affirmative action; civil liberties; consumer rights; criminal justice; disability rights; freedom of speech; gay rights; international human rights; immigration; labor law; open government; privacy; protection of health, safety and the environment; and women's rights and reproductive choice." 01-06 Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush (MPHBooks.com - Center for Constitutional Rights) "In ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH, the experts at one of our nation's leading institutions of constitutional scholarship, the Center for Constitutional Rights, set out the legal arguments for impeachment in a clear, concise, and objective discussion. In four separate articles of impeachment detailing four separate charges –warrantless surveillance, misleading Congress on the reasons for the Iraq war, violating laws against torture, and subverting the Constitution’s separation of powers – it is, say the CCR attorneys, a case of black letter law, with abundant evidence." 02-06 Branding Suggestions for Democrats (OurKarlRove.com) Provides branding suggestions. Budget Deficit - Tradeoffs (National Priorities Project) "Could your tax dollars be better spent? Make a selection in each of the three fields below and just click to find out what else your tax dollars could provide." 2-04 Budget: Sensible Budget Priorities for America’s Children (SensiblePriorities.org) "Each year, our nation’s military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify before Congress about the condition of America’s armed forces. Their testimony, and the discussion and media coverage surrounding it, raise important questions: Is America prepared to defend itself? Are our soldiers adequately paid? Are U.S. fighter jets the best in the world? Imagine if our nation had a Joint Chiefs of Staff for Children who also testified before Congress each year on the welfare of America’s young people: Are our children receiving the best education? Are they housed, fed, and properly cared for? Do they receive adequate healthcare? Are America’s children being prepared to win the economic battles of the 21st century? But, as we all know, Congress never hears this testimony—and the media doesn’t cover it—because the Children’s Joint Chiefs of Staff do not exist." 11-05 Bush Record on Forests (TWS.org) Describes how Bush administration policies have influenced protection of our forests and wilderness areas. 7-04 Bush's IQ (New York Times) "To Bush-bashers, it may be the most infuriating revelation yet from the military records of the two presidential candidates: the young George W. Bush probably had a higher I.Q. than did the young John Kerry."  "Mr. Bush's score on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test at age 22 again suggests that his I.Q was the mid-120's, putting Mr. Bush in about the 95th percentile of the population, according to Mr. Sailer. Mr. Kerry's I.Q. was about 120, in the 91st percentile, according to Mr. Sailer's extrapolation of his score at age 22 on the Navy Officer Qualification Test." 10-04 Bush-Cheney Ties to Katrina Deals (Truthout.org) "Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." "At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast." 9-05 Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR-NY.org) "The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." "CCR uses litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive direction, to empower poor communities and communities of color, to guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections and least access to legal resources, to train the next generation of constitutional and human rights attorneys, and to strengthen the broader movement for constitutional and human rights." 01-06 Contesting Bush's Assertions (BushWatch.com) Provides information designed to refute some of President Bush's claims. 7-04 Contesting Bush's Assertions (PantsOnFire.net) Provides information designed to refute some of President Bush's claims. Put more directly, the site calls some of Bush's key statements "lies." 7-04 Contributors to Bush or Republican National Committee (North Texas Indy Media Center) Lists the largest contributors. 1-05 Democratic Candidates for President - Interviews (Moveon.org) Provides interviews with Democratic candidates for President, including Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, Governor Howard Dean, Senator John Edwards, Congressman Dick Gephardt, Senator Bob Graham, Senator John Kerry, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Senator Joe Lieberman, and Reverend Al Sharpton. 6-03 Democratic Convention - Obama Speech Video (Dems2004.com) Provides a video of Barack Obama addressing the the Democratic Convention. 7-04 Democratic National Committee (Democrats.org) Provides a Democratic view of government. 6-03 Dominionism (Awesome Library) Provides information on a strong conservative movement toward Christian theocracy. Editorial - "Moral Values" Question Not Asked Well (CBS News) "The subject matter is 'moral values.' The theory is this: Kerry lost because he was very unpopular with people who believe moral values are the most important issues. This group of values voters is growing and Democrats are doomed until they can win them over." "First, the poll: If the poll had been worded or constructed only slightly differently, moral values would not have been the top issue. We’re building a worldview out of a small, odd vista." "This years' failure is not intrinsic to what the Democratic Party is or what it might stand for. Family values were a very big deal 20 years ago in the reign of Ronald Reagan. (One of the more visible advocates was Democrat Tipper Gore.) Yet Democrat Bill Clinton then won two terms. The so-called values voters’ crisis can be solved by the right candidate. It’s not brain surgery." 11-04 Editorial - Confronting Fundamentalism (InterfaithAlliance.org - Arun Gandhi) "Mahatma Gandhi would be disappointed -- and troubled -- by the growing religious intolerance here in America and around the world." Editorial - Get Corporations Out of Our Polling Places (AlterNet.org - Thom Hartmann) "Why have we let corporations into our polling places, locations so sacred to democracy that in many states even international election monitors and reporters are banned? Why are we allowing corporations to exclusively handle our vote, in a secret and totally invisible way?" "When I lived in Germany, they took the vote the same way most of the world does – people fill in hand-marked ballots, which are hand-counted by civil servants taking a week off from their regular jobs, watched over by volunteer representatives of the political parties. It's totally clean, and easily audited. And even though it takes a week or more to count the vote (and costs nothing more than a bit of overtime pay for civil servants), the German people know the election results the night the polls close because the news media's exit polls, for two generations, have never been more than a tenth of a percent off." 10-04 Editorial - Loss of Civil Rights and the Patriot Act (PublicInterestPictures.org) " 'We created Unconstitutional to show Americans the extent to which our civil liberties and our freedoms have been trampled upon by our government since 9-11,' said Robert Greenwald, the film's executive producer." 9-04 Editorial - Marginalization of Grassroots Activism (Alternet.org) "This year’s presidential campaign has already provided many reasons to bemoan the state of American journalism. Here’s one more: the marginalization of grassroots activism." "This marginalization is caused by two reasons. One, the media does not cover instances of popular political expression, including demonstrations, issue-based activism and other organizing outside of the two-party system. Or, if these activities are covered, they are presented as spectacles – not as an integral part of our ongoing democratic dialogue." 9-04 Editorial - Mourn (The Nation) "Maybe this time the voters chose what they actually want: Nationalism, pre-emptive war, order not justice, 'safety' through torture, backlash against women and gays, a gulf between haves and have-nots, government largesse for their churches and a my-way-or-the-highway President." "Where, I wonder, does that leave us?" 11-04 Editorial - One Country, Two Moralities (AlterNet.org - Cooperman) Provides a progressive view of the divisions in the nation revealed by voting preferences for the president." "There are indeed sides, but the dividing line is not morality. It is the ability to tolerate uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, unknowability, relativity." "And this tolerance is less a matter of brainpower than of temperament." "The asymmetry occasionally perturbs me, because I can appreciate their tastes far more readily than they can appreciate mine. But I would wager that our differences have even more to do with genes than they do with upbringing or education. Desire for novelty and risk aversion are both hardwired." "So I must abandon the solace of thinking my political opponents benighted, uneducated and cognitively impaired." "But I refuse to think them more moral." "There are as many moral values at stake in opposing the slaughter of innocent Iraqi children as there are in opposing the abortion of innocent unborn children. As much moral sensitivity in defending the world's wilderness from exploitation as in defending our ... er ... homeland security. And as much moral courage in supporting the rights of people of all sexual orientations as in supporting traditional marriage." "How does one participate in a democracy in which more than half the people want righteous certainty at any cost – and a significant minority despises this certainty as ignorance, bigotry and cruelty?" 10-04 Editorial - Why George W. Bush Must Be Defeated (GeorgeSoros.com - Soros) Argues that President Bush must be defeated. 10-04 Editorial by Gore: Bush Repeatedly and Persistently Broke the Law (MSNBC News) "Former Vice President Al Gore asserted Monday that President Bush “repeatedly and persistently” broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant and called for a federal investigation of the practice." "Gore, also a former member of the Senate from Tennessee, proposed that a special counsel be appointed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate whether there have been violations of the law." The full text of Gore's speech is available here. 01-06 Editorial: Bill Threatens "Unwritten Constitution" (FindLaw) "Last week, the Senate unanimously approved a defense authorization bill which, if approved by the House, will dramatically curtail the ability of prisoners held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detention in federal court." "The Amendment's key provision would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to entertain habeas corpus petitions from Guantanamo Bay detainees--except in two circumstances." Editor's Note: The purpose of the writ of habeas corpus is to release a person from unlawful imprisonment. The writ addresses whether lawful procedures were used to imprison the person, not whether the person is guilty of a crime. 12-05 Editorial: Bush, the Incompetent (Washington Post - Meyerson) "Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it's hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president's defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things -- particularly when most of them were the president's own initiatives." 06-06 Editorial: Dangers of Computerized Voting (VoteFraud.org - Dugger) Provides a history on why and how computerized voting, without paper verification, poses a danger to democracy. Article written in 1988. "The election-equipment companies, which thus both sell and program the computers that tabulate public elections, have long contended, in and out of court, that they own the source codes and must keep them secret from everyone, including the local officials who conduct elections." 12-04 Editorial: Freedom from Fear (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." 6-05 Editorial: Our Role in Fundamentalist Wars (CommonDreams.org - Moyers) "To save the American Dream, 'we desperately need to reaffirm the principle that it is possible to carry out an analysis of social life which rational human beings will recognize as being true, regardless of whether they happen to be women or men, whites or black, straights or gays, employers or employees, Jews or born-again Christians. The alternative is to stand by helplessly as special interest groups tear the United States apart in the name of their "separate realities" or to wait until one of them grows strong enough to force its irrational and subjective brand of reality on all the rest.' " "That was written 25 years ago, just as the radical Christian right was setting out on their long march to political supremacy. The forces [Marvin Harris] warned against have gained strength ever since and now control much of the United States government and are on the verge of having it all." "It has to be said that their success has come in no small part because of our acquiescence and timidity." 9-05 Editorial: Radical Right Successful in Undermining Independence of Public Broadcasting (DemocracyNow.org - Moyers) "Moyers says, 'I think we're at a moment in American history that is unique. I think we are in danger of losing our democracy because of the domination, the monopoly of power being exercised by the huge economic interests, both directly and indirectly. In public broadcasting we need to get back to the revolutionary spirit of dissent and courage that brought us into existence in the first place, and this country does, too.' " 6-05 Editorial: Roberts, John G. (NOW.org) Provides a progressive view of the nominee for Supreme Court. "As Deputy Solicitor General, Roberts argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that 'we continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled. The Court’s conclusion in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion...finds no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution.' " 7-05 Editorial: Rudy Guiliani, One-Day Wonder or Contender? (BBC News) "On 10 September 2001, Mr Giuliani's political career seemed to be in terminal decline." "Then 9/11 changed everything and he emerged, caked in the dust of the World Trade Center, as America's mayor." 04-07 Editorial: Spinning Science (BillFisher.Blogspot.com) "We know that from a multi-year series of findings that the administration of President George W. Bush has systematically manipulated science to comply with ideology – and satisfy the political agenda of his right-wing base." 11-06 Editorial: Stop Amendment That Strips Fundamental Rights (Center for Constitutional Rights) "Last year the Supreme Court rejected the government's position that it can maintain a law-free zone at the Guantánamo Naval Base. The habeas corpus petitions on behalf of the men imprisoned in Guantánamo seek the most basic relief: a fair hearing with due process in federal court to challenge the factual and legal basis of their detention. Our system of justice is founded upon the notion that the Executive may not detain any individual without these fundamental protections. We are asking you to write your representatives to demand that they not to undo the work of the Supreme Court and that they uphold the rule of law and reject the Graham-Levin Amendment to the Military Authorization Bill." Editor's Note: The purpose of the writ of habeas corpus is to release a person from unlawful imprisonment. The writ addresses whether lawful procedures were used to imprison the person, not whether the person is guilty of a crime. 12-05 Editorial: The Impeachment of George W. Bush (TheNation.com - Holtzman) "Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so." 01-06 Editorial: The Impossible Will Take a Little While (Buzzflash.com - Loeb) "Inclusive faith respects the stories of all in the human community, and makes those stories the ground of our politics. It recognizes our profound interconnections, so that if we deny someone justice or damage the earth halfway around the globe, our actions may come back to haunt us at home, as occurred in 911, or with global warming." "Inclusive faith also recognizes that courage is contagious and that the actions of people in one community may light a spark in another -- the way the US anti-nuclear movement influenced people in the Soviet Union who modeled their actions on our Nevada test site protests, or the way that rebellious American rock music influenced the Czech rock band,that helped spearhead their democracy movement." 01-06 Editorial: U.S. v. Bush (BillFisher.Blogspot.com) "The scene is a Federal Grand Jury room. There, impaneled ordinary citizens listen intently as a veteran Federal prosecutor asks them to return an indictment unique in American history." "The charge is Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. And the defendants are President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell." 11-06 Editorials - MSNBC Skewed to the Right (MediaMatters.com) "In its post-debate coverage of the October 8 presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, MSNBC presented a panel and analysis that skewed sharply in favor of the Bush-Cheney '04 ticket." 10-04 Editorials by Howard Dean (Yubanet.com) "The two critical issues for every president are national security and economic security. While much media attention has been focused on Iraq and al Qaida, most Americans have been quietly focusing on their economic plight. What they are seeing is not pretty." 10-04 Editorials: Progressive Views on National Politics (BillFisher.Blogspot.com) Provides essays with a progressive view. 11-06 Election Reform Elections Update (Radio Left) Provides updates on activist attempts to gain fair and open elections. 12-04 Essay - Paperless Voting Machines Corrupted the Results (BartCop.com) "My preference would be that you read my argument from the viewpoint of a member of a Grand Jury being presented with a summary set of facts. You are being asked to decide whether or not they indicate enough of a possibility of wrong doing to warrant issuing an indictment and conducting a full and thorough official and public investigation." "Secretaries of State and local election officials certify vote counting software based solely on [Shaun] Southworth’s say so. They do no independent examination or testing of the code themselves beyond simple logic and accuracy tests which security experts have called completely inadequate to the task of ensuring the software to be safe, secure and accurate. In essence this means that outside of the programmers who actually write the code, there is only one person in the entire US who has had access to the code and he is at best a shadowy figure who is dependent for his livelihood on the companies whose products he tests and certifies." "In many states (including AZ), a legal recount consists only of running the ballots back through the same central tabulator." "In the 2002 midterm election, there were fourteen House and Senate races across the U.S. where Democratic candidates were leading in the last pre-election polls by margins of 4 to 10 points. The votes in all those races were counted on either ES&S or Diebold optical scan or touchscreen systems. In all fourteen races the Republican candidate won by 3-7 percentage points. Republican control of the House and Senate were decided by these races. In the case of Senator Max Cleland of Georgia who was defeated by Saxy Chambliss, it took a sixteen point swing." Editor's Note: The tone of this article is very partisan. 4-05 Essay - What Voters Want and Why It Is Not Offered (RaisetheFloor.org - Kuttner) "Political agendas are set by those who invest in politics, and lately money has simply crowded out ordinary voters. Voters will continue to be alienated from politics until some political leader or movement defies the conventional wisdom and offers real alternatives." 7-03 Essay - Why We Pay Taxes (AlterNet.org - Ivins) "Not only should feeding the people and getting health care to the people be more important than a nuclear program, it should even be more important than tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy. The United States now spends $400 billion a year on the military – that's 50.1 percent of all discretionary spending (non-discretionary includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid)." "The reason people hate paying taxes is because they know the system isn't fair." 7-03 Essays for Raising the Minimum Wage (RaisetheFloor.org) Provides essays related to raising the minimum wage and support of other progressive issues.7-03 Failures and Falsehoods Claimed of the Bush Administration (NewDemocracyProject.com) Provides 60 topics, listed alphabetically. 10-04 Gore Starts New TV Network (ABC News) "Al Gore, once known as the stuffiest man in Washington, isn't wearing a tie these days, and with his new TV network launching, he's clearly hoping to prove a point." "The former vice president now describes himself as a "recovering politician," and today he turns the page on the next chapter of his life with the launch of Current — a cable and satellite TV network — that he claims will reinvent TV by letting its viewers supply the content." 8-05 Half of Clinton Aides Now Lobbyists (ABC News) "A study being released Monday by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, ranked the top 100 officials serving when President Clinton left office two years ago and found 51 now lobby the government or work for companies that do." 3-03 Heuvel, Katrina Vanden (TheNation.com) Provides a professional profile of the progressive commentator and author. 9-05 Interview with Representative John Conyers (BlueLemur.com) "Raw Story’s John Byrne and Larisa Alexandrovna spent some time yesterday speaking with Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.). Although many people have only recently discovered Rep. Conyers through his investigation of Ohio voting irregularities, Conyers has in fact been a prominent force in the civil rights movement for over 35 years." 1-05 Judge: Justice Can Be Served Within the U.S. Constitution (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) "U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics." " 'We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel,' he said Wednesday. 'The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart.' " 7-05 Karl Rove's Strategies (MSNBC News) "The reelection strategy was built on the belief that with U.S. forces in Iraq, the outcome there uncertain, and fighting terrorism still at the forefront of Bush's presidency, Bush had to shape and win the debate on national security and still contend with Democratic criticism that he had ignored domestic problems." "Rove said that when he and Bush first talked about a reelection strategy in December 2002, the president, anticipating a race that resembled 2000 in its closeness, laid out a series of requests. He wanted a strategy designed to enlarge GOP majorities in the House and Senate, not what he called a 'lonely victory.' He wanted more emphasis on grass-roots volunteers. And he told Rove he wanted a campaign about big things and big issues, not 'mini ball,' and finally said he wanted to leave the Republican Party 'stronger, broader and better.' "11-04 Left of Center Organization (Left.org) "Left.org's mission is make the 13 million Americans who say they are politically to the left of the center more visible, more unified and more powerful. Our ambition is to become a party within the parties, a place where progressives come together to consider which of the institutions of American politics are most useful to achieve our next tactical and strategic objectives." 3-05 Media for Democracy (MediaforDemocracy.org) "Media For Democracy 2004 is a non-partisan citizens' initiative to monitor mainstream news coverage of the 2004 elections and advocate fair, democratic and issue-oriented standards of reporting. The project links voters with more than 100 independent media reform groups in a targeted campaign to prevent the types of media mistakes -- such as early, erroneous and politically biased projections -- that plagued the 2000 election." 9-04 MoveOn (MoveOn.org) Provides a progressive view of government. 6-03 Moyers: Politics, the Environment, and the Rapture Index (CommonDreams.org) "For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts." "In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right - the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the twelve volumes of the left-behind series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye." 12-04 New Progressive Dictionary (CBS News) "The ever-expanding genre of anti-Bush books has now entered the reference field. Coming in August from McSweeney's, the publishing house founded by author-activist Dave Eggers, is 'The Future Dictionary of America,' a Utopian tome set 'sometime' beyond the present." An example of how the word "ralphnadired" might be used: "He ralphnadired their relationship when he condi-scendingly denied that he'd cheneyed their joint account." 12-05. Pelosi, Nancy: First Woman to Lead a Political Party in Congress (U. S. House of Representatives) Provides a political biography of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, up to her gaining leadership of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. 11-14-02 Political Position - Assess Your Political Position (PoliticalCompass.org) Provides questions to position you on a political graph, ranging from "left wing" to "right wing" and "authoritarian" to "libertarian." Also positions prominent British politicians on the chart. 7-01 Progressive Candidates (Democracy for America) Provides a list of candidates chosen by Democracy for America, Howard Dean's organization, as strong progressive candidates in tough fights for key positions locally." 9-04 Progressive Clergy - Political Involvement (Clergy Leadership Network) Provides issues and programs for involving progressive clergy in political and policy change. "We are appalled by the bullying uses of power being pursued by the current Administration! It runs counter to every religious tradition, especially the great monotheistic faiths, strong for being large enough to embrace the whole world. Religious communities have always transcended national boundaries and they maintain deep ties around the world. The vision of faith is of an inclusive human family, wherein each nation and community holds special gifts meant in their sharing to enrich life for all. Only policies that lead our country to play a cooperative and positive role in the community of nations will claim our support." "Peace for the world, rooted in justice for all, alone conveys the religious vision. Laboring aggressively for peace is our nation's calling. War and the threat of war-making as our nation's vocation is abhorrent, a prostitution of our nation's power." 12-03 Progressive Views (Center for American Progress) "We will work to find progressive, pragmatic solutions to the greatest domestic and international challenges facing our country. At a time when a conservative minority effectively promotes policies that put special interests before the national interest, we will develop progressive solutions that can give us a government 'of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people.' " 9-03 Progressive's View of Government Now (U.S. House of Representatives - Congressman Ron Paul) Congressman Ron Paul describes his view of the rise of the "neo cons" and our current situation. 12-04 Progressives Opposing Bush Agendas (AmericaComingTogether.com) "Tax cuts to benefit the wealthy … More arsenic and mercury in the water, fewer parks, wildernesses and forests for our future … Turning back the clock on civil rights, on women’s rights, on workers’ rights." Propaganda - How Our Mainstream Media Let Us Down on Iraq (PBS.org - Bill Moyers Journal) Ahmed Chalabi "was a creature of American propaganda to a large degree. It was a [sic] American company, the Rendon Group, that — working secretly with the CIA — basically created his organization, the Iraqi National Congress. And put Chalabi in charge basically." "What he did was reasonably clever but fairly obvious, which is he gave the same stuff to some reporters that, for one reason or another, he felt would simply report it. And then he gave the same stuff to people in the Vice President's office and in the Secretary of Defense's office. And so, if the reporter called the Department of Defense or the Vice President's office to check, they would've said, 'Oh, I think that's-- you can go with that. We have that, too.' So, you create the appearance, or Chalabi created the appearance, that there were two sources, and that the information had been independently confirmed, when, in fact, there was only one source. And it hadn't been confirmed by anybody." 2-02 Questions and Answers About Domestic Spying (The Federalist Society) "Below, two Federalist Society members (David B. Rivkin, Jr., partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, Contributing Editor to the National Interest and National Review magazines, and Member of the UN Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Robert Levy, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute) pose and then answer questions about the administration’s policy on domestic surveillance." "If there were no FISA statute barring the president’s actions, the fuzzy text of the fourth Amendment, which protects only against unreasonable searches, probably leaves the president sufficient room for exercise of his inherent Commander-in-Chief authority. There is, however, a FISA statute that expressly forbids warrantless surveillance of the kind undertaken by the NSA. It is primarily for that statutory reason, not a constitutional reason, that the president’s executive order is invalid." 01-06 Religious Views of George Washington (VirginiaPlaces.org) Provides what is known about the religious views of George Washington. 12-03 Report Cards in Education for States (Center for American Progress) "Education: The State We’re In provides a comprehensive, state-by-state snapshot of education today in America. It brings together publicly available data, slicing the numbers in two ways. First, seven of the most pressing issue areas in education are explored in reports encompassing all 50 states. Second, individual state report cards provide a comprehensive look at education in each of the 50 states. In both instances, Education: The State We’re In offers some indication of comparative performance by ranking states from first to worst." 8-05 Short History of the "Christian Left" (NOW with Bill Moyers) Provides a short history of the organized involvement of Christian progressives in politics and public policy. 12-03 Sustainability and Leadership Issues (Ode Magazine) "Ode is an independent magazine about the people and ideas that are changing the world." "Sometimes it’s difficult to see beyond the war, poverty, exploitation and pollution that the mainstream media use to fill our view of the world. But there is more to life. There are other stories to report. Stories of countless initiatives being launched around the globe by people devoted to justice, respect and equality. Stories that bridge the gap between thinking and doing, between rage and hope, and the painful gap between the rich and poor – and thus build peace and sustainability. That is the news that Ode promises to deliver. By reading Ode you connect to a network of positive change and inspiration. Ode points the way to knowing better, doing better and feeling better." 9-05 Taxes and Income - A Critique (PerfectlyLegalBook.com - Johnston) Explains why the author thinks Americans should be concerned about the patterns of taxation and concentration of wealth. 2-04 The Rapture Index (EdifyingSpectacle.org) Describes the rapture index, very well known among religious conservatives and fundamentalists. 12-04 Trillion Dollar Tradeoffs for Repeal of the Federal Estate Tax (National Priorities Project) "President Bush and some representatives in Congress want to permanently repeal the estate tax, a tax that only falls on millionaire estates. NPP offers two factsheets that show what estate tax repeal would cost the nation and selected states and what that revenue could buy in local services instead. One factsheet is designed for media and legislators, the other for activists." 2-04 TrueMajority (TrueMajority.org) Provides a progressive view of government. 6-03 Voter's Bill of Rights (Institute for Policy Studies - Voter March) "Fifty-four percent of the votes disqualified in the [Florida 2000 Presidential] election were cast by African Americans who make up 11% of the state’s voters." "The Institute for Policy Studies decries these inexcusable violations of the Voting Rights Act and reaffirms its commitment to a Pro-Democracy Campaign which calls for a fundamental revamping of our deeply-flawed, undemocratic electoral system." The Institute calls for a 10-point Voter's Bill of Rights: "This Bill of Rights calls for: 1) Strict Enforcement of the Voting Rights Act; 2) Abolition of the Electoral College, 3) Clean Money Elections, 4) Instant Run-off Voting, 5) Proportional Representation 6)Voting Rights for Ex-Prisoners, 7) Making Voting Easier and More Reliable--same day registration, equal access to polls and new technology, new machines, 8) Easier Candidate Access to the Ballot, Media and Databases, 9) Independent and Non-Partisan Election Bodies, and 10) Statehood for the District of Columbia." 12-04 What Went Wrong in the 2004 Election (NDOL.org) "The dynamics of this campaign have confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Democrats suffer from three persistent "trust gaps" in our message." 11-04 Projects Act for Change (WorkingforChange.com) Provides projects for affecting political change. 11-04 Compare Your Positions With Presidential Candidates for 2004 (CompareDecideVote.com) Provides an opportunity for you to compare your positions on issues with the positions of the candidates for president. Editor's Note: The positions are sometimes stated to support Kerry's views more strongly than Bush's views. 10-03 Letters to the Editor (MoveOn.org) Provides a "Letter to the Editor" form for sending to various national newspapers. 3-05 Promoting Political Discourse (CommonCause.org) Provides a toolkit for working to improve discourse and views available from the public airwaves in the period before the election. Presented by the Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition. 9-04 Writing to the Media - Contacts (Congress.org) Provides information for writing letters to the editors and other media campaigns. 04-08

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