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Vultures of the insurance industry By Leigh Johnson | Janury 7, 2005
SURVEYING THE immense loss of life and structural damage in coastal Southeast Asia from the tsunamis, the global insurance industry had a perverse response: Relief.
While survivors searched for lost relatives and clean water, insurers were celebrating that the tragedy wouldn’t have a “material impact” on their 2004 profits. At least 5 million people have been made homeless, but because few have insurance, the industry (…)

The two hour Congressional ’debate’ on the Ohio election irregularities exposed how the US Congress is completely dysfunctional.
There were enough problems in Ohio and other states that many Americans know that the election was stolen, and we can prove it beyond a shadow of doubt. If Congress actually cared about our democracy, there would have been a real debate, with the presentation of all facts on both sides with the true intent to discover the truth. But Congress did not debate the (…)

The US isn’t protecting or feeding Iraqis, it’s stoking violence and hardship
by Naomi Klein
Colin Powell invoked it before the invasion, telling aides that if the US went into Iraq "you’re going to be owning this place". John Kerry pledged his allegiance to it during the first presidential debate, saying: "Now, if you break it, you made a mistake. It’s the wrong thing to do. But you own it."
It’s the so-called Pottery Barn rule: "You break it, you own it." Pottery Barn, a chain of (…)

By Alan Fram
Democrats turned Congress’ quadrennial counting of electoral votes on Thursday into a battle over Election Day problems in Ohio, forcing the House and Senate to consider a challenge to the presidential count for only the second time since 1877.
President Bush’s re-election triumph over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was not in jeopardy. But after Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., lodged a formal protest that the Ohio votes "were not, under all (…)

Dear Friend,
It is with great sorrow that we write to you today about the passing of beloved Sacramento Congressman and DCCC Chairman Robert T. Matsui. In recent months, Congressman Matsui had been battling Myelodysplastic Disorder (MDS), a rare stem cell disorder that causes an inability of the bone marrow to produce blood products, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. He succumbed to complications caused by pneumonia on New Year’s Day.
In his 26 years in Congress, (…)

By ALAN FRAM
WASHINGTON - Congress certified President Bush’s re-election Thursday but only after Democrats forced a challenge to the quadrennial count of electoral votes for just the second time since 1877.
Bush’s Election Day triumph over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was never in doubt. After a near four-hour delay to consider and reject the dispute over voting in Ohio, lawmakers in joint session affirmed Bush’s 286-251 electoral vote victory - plus a single vote that a "faithless" Kerry (…)

by Malia Rulon
WASHINGTON — The senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee protested President Bush’s re-election Wednesday with a new report claiming serious election irregularities and "significant disenfranchisement" of voters in Ohio.
The report by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan says Congress should challenge the Electoral College vote when it is tallied Thursday in the House of Representatives and investigate all claims of voter problems in Ohio.
"We have found numerous, (…)

by Manuel Valenzuela
From the Oceans, Indiscriminate Devastation
As if to burst the bubble of human grandeur, infallibility and perceived omnipotence, Earth has once again thundered powerful vibrations onto her once pristine surface, in a sudden instant of horrific oceanic energy killing hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings and laying waste to vast coastlines throughout Asiatic lands bordering the Indian Ocean. In one brief moment the fantasies of Hollywood fictions fused with (…)

(Coverage willl appear on C-SPAN at 01:00 PM Eastern / 12:00 Central)
38 minutes ago
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A small group of Democrats agreed Thursday to force House and Senate debates on Election Day problems in Ohio before letting Congress certify President Bush’s win over Sen. John Kerry in November.
Full story:
– http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...

Newest crop of homeless U.S. vets By Nicole Colson | Janury 7, 2005 |
Time magazine proudly announced the US soldier as Person of the Year last year. FAMILIAR IMAGES of homeless veterans, scarred by war, may become even more common in the coming months and years. That’s because, according to recent reports, there’s a new crop of homeless veterans starting to appear on the streets—veterans from the Afghanistan and current Iraq war.
Nearly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given (…)