contributions

by Peter Phillips
The terrible earthquake/tsunami disaster, along coastlines of the Indian Ocean, left tens of thousands dead and many times more people homeless and weakened.
Front pages news stories swept the US corporate media -12,000 dead, 40,000, 60,000 and 100,000 made progressive day by day headlines. Twenty-four hour TV news provided minute by minute updates with added photos and live aerial shots of the effected regions.
As the days after unfolded, personal stories of survival (…)

Columbus, OH - A day after the conclusion of the flawed recount of Ohio’s presidential vote, Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb called on Congress to challenge the legitimacy of Ohio’s Electoral College delegation.
"The recount of Ohio’s presidential vote was conducted in clear violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law. We can have no faith in the results when both the initial election and the recount were conducted in a haphazard and clearly illegitimate manner. (…)

Is it just a striking coincidence?
The 9.0 killer earthquake in Asia that unleashed tsunamis killing tens of thousands followed exactly one year to the hour after the Bam, Iran, earthquake that killed 26,000.
On Dec. 26, 2003, a 6.6 quake hit the ancient city of Bam in Iran. While the quake was much smaller than the one that struck near the island of Sumatra Sunday, its epicenter was directly under the city.
On Dec. 26, 2004, the 9.0 quake struck in South Asia. While the death toll (…)

RE: Group holds fast to Kerry cause with Beacon Hill vigil By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff (December 29, 2004) http://www.boston.com/news/...
by Robin Baneth
Yesterday, a member of the Boston Coalition Against Election Fraud — petitioning outside John Kerry’s home — tried to persuade a passerby to send a post card to Kerry urging the senator not to certify the electoral college results. The pedestrian replied that he was perfectly happy with the election results, being a Republican. ’’I (…)

Ukraine will withdraw its 1,400-strong military contingent from Iraq by the end of next year, Defence Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"Next April we will be sending only a reinforced battalion rather than a brigade and by the end of 2005 we will complete our pullout of the contingent," Mr Kuzmuk’s press service quoted him as saying.
The statement said a battalion would be made up of about 500 servicemen.
Ukraine’s original contingent sent to Iraq was made (…)

by Helen Thomas
The FBI has blown the whistle on the Defense Department’s military investigators by accusing them of abusive treatment of prisoners of war in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The FBI was especially outraged that the interrogators of suspected terrorists had posed as FBI agents.
Administration officials usually are pretty clubby folks who close ranks in times of trouble. But apparently, the FBI was not ready to take the fall for the Pentagon’s atrocious treatment of some (…)

Free Arab Voice | December 28 2004
Emergency teams from the Fallujah Hospital have recovered 700 bodies of Iraqis from the ruins of houses destroyed in the US offensive on the city. Among the 700 bodies were 504 bodies of women and children; the rest elderly and middle aged men.
Dr. Tamir Salih al-‘Ani, who is in charge of the morgue in Fallujah General Hospital has reported that emergency teams from the Fallujah Hospital have recovered 700 bodies of Iraqis from the ruins of houses (…)

by Wayne Besen
Reggie White, a former football star and preacher who took part in a 1998 ad campaign that said gay people have short life spans, died this week. He was 43 years old.
According to most news reports, White was the equivalent of Mother Teresa in football pads. His beatification includes gushing testimonials about how he was a wonderful “Man of God” who was a great role model to children.
“As great a player as Reggie was, he was a better person. Every life that he touched (…)

By Jane Stillwater No, I’m not identifying with Peter Pan these days because America has become NeverNeverLand. I identify with Peter Pan because I’m just a little guy up against the Prince of Darkness. "Jane! Don’t you know that all your efforts aren’t doing any good? You are just one little person up against a 100-trillion-dollar mob. Give it up!" Never. I’ll just think happy thoughts, cover myself with pixie dust and keep dreaming of a better world. If accepting (…)

In a recent article regarding the Ohio re-count effort called "Election Lawsuits Not Constructive ," we hit upon that quirky expression employing that resonating image of sour grapes: "A substantial number of the complaints and lawsuits appear to be frivolous, serving no good purpose. Often, they sound like sour grapes complaints voiced by those who simply can’t cope with the fact that their candidates lost the election."
Yikes. Could this be true? Are we insane anti-fascists solely (…)