contributions

by Diet Simon
After a nuclear waste train ran over and killed the French activist Sébastien Briat nearly seven weeks ago, such trains are under sharper observation, writes the leftwing newspaper, Neues Deutschland. Many environment campaigners are asking themselves whether such an accident could also happen in Germany and what sort of inhibition threshold there might be for careless and inconsiderate driving of such trains.
The paper, which was the official mouthpiece of the communist (…)

Ukrainians Show Americans How to Reject Election Fraud Can We Emulate Their Courage & Determination?
By Michael Bleyzer (from Kyiv, Ukraine)
(Copy of the letter of a young Ukrainian. A nice, timely report from someone on the spot....)
As you likely know from the news, we are in the middle of the Orange Revolution here in Kyiv. I can tell you that this is one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life to be here during this time. We have been spending a lot of time on the (…)

Interview with Harvey Wasserman on Democracy Now
AMY GOODMAN: Harvey Wasserman is our guest, Senior Editor at the Free Press, based in Ohio. Welcome to Democracy Now!
HARVEY WASSERMAN: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about the whole controversy?
HARVEY WASSERMAN: I live in Columbus. I’m a registered voter in Columbus. They tried to deprive me of my absentee ballot. But we have followed this thing. I write for (…)

We must hold the Bush Administration accountable for its use of torture
By Angie Pratt
You want to know why when news of prisoner torture percolated up the channels of the government nothing was done? The answer is quite simple. They condoned the actions. In fact, we now know that they were following an executive order from George W. Bush. This isn’t based on hearsay. This isn’t a figment of some Massachusetts liberal’s imagination. This allegation is based on an internal FBI document (…)

You keep using that word . . . 2004’s top changes to the American lexicon
By Ulysses S. Taxpayer
December 23, 2004-What would the end of a year be without a seemingly endless offering of lists categorizing that year’s most blank blanks? Here’s one more. Over the past year, the American vocabulary has undergone several significant changes. We are told we live in a divided country, hopefully by trying to understand what others are trying to communicate we can seek to bridge this divide. (…)

by Washingtonpost
THANKS TO a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of foreign detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA — truths the Bush administration implacably has refused to acknowledge.
Since the publication of photographs of abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in the spring the administration’s whitewashers — led by Defense (…)

Insurgents have fired mortars at the chow hall more than 30 times this year. One round killed a female soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in the summer as she scrambled for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are building a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers just down the dusty dirt road.
Reporter Provides Account of Mosul Attack
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 21, 2004
Filed at 11:25 a.m. ET
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, (…)

HITLER, STALIN, BUSH .. MEN OF OUR TIME
by Brian Reade
BEFORE you lash the big bird in the bin and stick your head in the oven instead, let’s put Time magazine’s declaration of George Bush as the Man of the Year in perspective.
In 1938 the same august organ gave the accolade to Adolf Hitler. A year later this most prestigious award went to another deranged mass-murderer, called Joseph Stalin. So maybe we should applaud Time’s consistency in lowering Bush on to the same pedestal. (…)

New Wheel of VOTER "Challange" IV: $.1K, Last of 2004?
NEW $100 "CHALLANGE" (Bush spelling)
Due to the popularity (Ohio fax number created below!) of the last three Wheel of VOTER Challenges 2004 — in which paper-trail voting is unanimously preferred, indisputable machine hackability, and absence of any Democrat Diebold IT personnel — we at WVC headquarters now offer the following $100 opportunity for our easiest challenge yet:
We will send a $100 cashier’s check to the first FIVE (…)

If it was a rocket, you’d find remnants of the rocket. If it were an improvised explosive device, I’m sure you’d find remnants,’’ Myers said.This attack is the responsibility of the insurgents, the same insurgents who attacked on 9/11. The way you prevent this is to win the war on extremism.’’
So, I guess Muhamad Atta came flying through the tent with a bomb strapped on him?
This coming from the guy who was asleep at the wheel on 9/11, then got a promotion shortly afterward.
We need to (…)