"We could see that control of Congress is going to be decided by races in recount situations that might not be determined for several weeks," said Paul S. DeGregorio, chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, although he added that he does not expect problems of this magnitude.

"It's hard to put a factor on how ill-prepared we are," said Democratic former Ohio governor Richard F. Celeste, who recently co-chaired a study of new machines with Republican Richard L. Thornburgh, former governor of Pennsylvania, for the National Research Council. They advised local election officials to prepare backup plans for November.

Major Problems At Polls Feared
Some Officials Say Voting Law Changes And New Technology Will Cause Trouble
By Dan Balz and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01

An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.

A "secret" blog by a Ben Cardin staffer, exposing race issues...found by WizBang?

No, it's not interesting. It's not even believable. Barely reaches the level of bullshit. 

You in trouble now...

 

If the United States does not oppose a Turkish invasion it will face a more chaotic situation in Iraq and the loss of a long-term relationship with the Iraqi Kurds, who are Washington's best hope for obtaining rights for U.S. bases in the future. If Washington opposes the invasion, it risks further estrangement from Turkey, a state positioned to play a critical strategic role in a region where Iran increasingly challenges the United States for dominance.

Turkey fears Kurdish irredentism coming from an independent Kurdistan. The Iraqi Kurds perceive a Turkish invasion as aimed at controlling oil-rich Kirkuk, thereby denying the Iraqi Kurds an economic base for their independence. Furthermore, Turkish intervention in Iraq would create a terrible precedent for Syrian and Iranian intervention in the Iraqi civil war.

Turkey's Iraq Problem
By Lenore G. Martin
Saturday, September 16, 2006; A21

Although the world is paying more attention to Hezbollah and the Iraq insurgency, there's another guerrilla group that poses a severe threat to the stability of the Middle East.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), operating from havens in northern Iraq, has been attacking Turkish security forces in southeastern Anatolia and occasionally civilians elsewhere. Turkey is determined to prevent a repetition of the 1984-99 guerrilla war with the separatist PKK, in which it suffered more than 30,000 deaths. It has mobilized a large force on its Iraqi border and is threatening to invade northern Iraq.

A Turkish invasion would create chaos in that part of Iraq and potentially destabilize the region. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's response -- moving to reinvigorate a tripartite commission made up of the governments of Turkey, Iraq and the United States -- is insufficient. The United States needs to take much firmer action to stop the PKK guerrilla war from undermining its Middle East policy.

...this was the state that gave you stonings of school buses during desegregation, the spearing of a black man in front of Boston City Hall, old-boy white boardrooms that scared off black talent, a Red Sox franchise that allowed the exclusion of black players from spring training dinners well into the 1980s, and a Boston Latin where white parents ended affirmative action at the city's flagship public high school less than 10 years ago.

That's why I must remind him of the 1989 Dinkins vs. Giuliani election. This is from the NY Times archives...sorry, but you'd have to have that TimesSelect thing to read it all.

In New York, polls made public the day before the mayoral election gave David N. Dinkins leads of 14 percentage points (by The Daily News with WABC-TV) to 18 points (by The New York Observer). His actual margin of victory over Rudolph W. Giuliani was about 2 percentage points. Shifting Numbers...

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, attributed the discrepancy to white voters who were reluctant to tell poll takers they were not voting for a black candidate, even under the cover of anonymity. ''Whites tell pollsters ahead of time that they are voting for the black candidate,'' he said, ''and then they go into the voting booth and can't quite pull down that lever.'' Dealing in Black and White

Other poll takers agree that some respondents are not candid about their racial attitudes when questioned in person or on the telephone. Two recent studies, by CBS News and The Washington Post, indicated that even the race of the person conducting the interview can affect the results. 

Sweeping race out the door
September 16, 2006

FORTY YEARS after Edward Brooke was elected to represent Massachusetts in the US Senate, the Commonwealth is close to claiming a partial healing of its soul. It does not matter if Deval Patrick wins the Democratic gubernatorial primary next week. It is a colossal triumph for the race to get this far without Patrick's darkness becoming a shroud.

Some of the charges stem from a sheriff’s investigation of the night of Aug. 26, when the home of Evans Welch, a man with a history of mental illness and petty crimes, was attacked by a sledgehammer-wielding group of young men without warning or permit.

Witnesses said Mr. Melton, who often patrols the city at night with the police and a group of teenage followers, had directed the demolition of the house, which he said was known as a place to buy illegal drugs. His two police bodyguards are also charged in connection with that event.

Jackson Mayor Is Indicted Over Crime-Fighting Tactics
By SHAILA DEWAN

ATLANTA, Sept. 15 — The mayor of Jackson, Miss., was indicted on six felony charges Friday after months of criticism and warnings that his unorthodox crime-fighting tactics might put him on the wrong side of the law.

Among the counts now faced by the mayor, Frank Melton, are burglary, malicious mischief, illegally carrying a gun and causing a minor to commit a felony. The most serious of the charges against him carry sentences of up to 25 years, said the local district attorney, Faye Peterson.

The mayor’s supporters called the charges politically motivated and said he would not resign.

Your question.

If Powell and Levin and McCain can name one modern conflict where our enemies gave POWs treatment in accordance with the GC, I’d be glad to post it right here on my blog. Don’t expect that kind of an update any time soon.

Your answer

Germans must have been tempted to send captured Jewish American soldiers to Auschwitz along with Polish, German, and Dutch Jews and kindred human garbage. But they did not. My father survived because, amazingly, even the Nazis respected the reciprocal agreements on humane treatment of prisoners.

Rebelling against torture and Bush
By Robert Kuttner | September 16, 2006

The main obstacle to getting children into the military -- concerned parents -- has at long last been circumvented. Private companies can now harvest data on children and provide recruiters, some of whom are also now private contractors, with the information they need to contact children directly...

I signed my form directing our local high school to withhold my daughter's contact information from military recruiters. Other parents undoubtedly missed it. When military recruiters eventually come knocking at their doors, these families will find out the hard way what Bush really meant when he promised to "leave no child behind."

Reading, writing, and recruiting
By David Goodman  |  September 16, 2006

MY DAUGHTER started high school last week. This milestone was marked by the arrival in our home of a ream of paperwork. Along with the usual bureaucratic permissions, I found tucked into this package a seemingly innocuous form that carries extraordinary consequences: failing to fill it out might result in my daughter being harassed, assaulted, or being fast-tracked to fight in Iraq.

This form asks us whether we want to opt-out of having our daughter's contact information sent to the US military. If we overlooked this form, or did not opt-out , our high school is required to forward her information to military recruiters. This is thanks to a stealth provision of the No Child Left Behind law. It turns out that President Bush's supposed signature education law also happens to be the most aggressive military recruitment tool enacted since the draft ended in 1973...

This is what the most powerful military, the most potent technology in the world, has been reduced to because of the invasion.

How long do you think it will take to dig a trench capable of acting as a deterent around the whole damn city?

Iraq to Dig Trenches Around Baghdad
- By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006
(09-15) 15:02 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --

Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said.

Let's follow some footprints outward from Liza's complaint.

Okay, it's actually all rooted in The Republic of T for her. Me, I'm positive Oliver Willis posted something last night, but it is not there now. I wasn't going to get specific about that, but Mr. Daou said he'd invited Mr. Willis when he explained to Liza why there were none at the meeting.

several bloggers were invited who couldn't attend, including
Oliver Willis (who you didn't mention in your post). Also, I was told =
that more events like that are planned, and there will be an opportunity to
invite bloggers who didn't attend the first one.

I guess he had to warn his normal constituency not to show up...

What can I say?I like some types of pain.

Supreme Court to Post Same-Day Transcripts

This is progress. The Supreme Court has announced that beginning next month, it will post transcripts of oral arguments the same day they are argued. They will be available free on the court's website.

 

I said I wanted to get back to this.

Among the issues to be considered are whether laws need to be changed to limit both civil and criminal liability for companies, auditors and directors. One matter Mr. Scott cited is the proper role of state governments in financial market issues, including the cases brought by Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general.

The committee will consider whether Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires audits of internal controls at corporations, should be changed. Critics say that such audits are too expensive and have kept foreign companies from listing their securities in the United States.

I'm watching George Bush's news conference.

He has not answered...actually answered...a single question. I'm gonna post some clips later. 

If a long-standing problem with alcholism is Ney's particular problem, fine...but that's not going to be the reason the rest of the Republicans sold out and knuckled under.

But if you want to make the absurd case that Republican policy is the result of a near universal drinking problem in Congress, I...don't think I'd field an opposing argument.

Ney to Plead Guilty in Scandal
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006; A04

Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) is expected to plead guilty in the coming days to charges stemming from his association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and he will blame a long-standing problem with alcohol for behavior that spiraled down to illegality, sources close to the congressman said last night.

I could definitely see going there.

Destinywork: The Longame and 21st Century Paradigms of Struggle.
(for babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn)

i propose an anthology exploring african american liberation strategies in the 21st century.

premise is that we need new paradigms of struggle to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

that too much of african american struggle is caught up in the past rather than looking toward the future.

that the old paradigms of struggle, the old definitions and strategies, have played themselves out. that the only way to get ahead of the game is to come up with new paradigms of struggle

and new strategies for dispersing them into the community.

"Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" would involve volunteers posing as illegal immigrants and hiding on campus while students try to find them for prizes. For the "Fun with Guns" activity, students would shoot cardboard cutouts of Democratic leaders with BB or paintball guns.

This sort of shit is typical of College Republican groups.

Recruiter's 'Fun with Guns' plan denounced
By HOLLY KLAFT
The State News

Events allegedly planned to recruit students to the Republican Party at the University of Michigan have both Republicans and Democrats across the nation stunned.

Morgan Wilkins, an independent contractor hired by the College Republican National Committee to recruit students to the party, was described as planning events such as "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" and "Fun with Guns Day," in an article written Tuesday by The Michigan Daily.

Infant Mortality Is Decreasing in Puerto Ricans and Blacks
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

Gains among blacks and Puerto Ricans drove infant mortality rates to a record low in New York City last year, and narrowed a persistent disparity between those groups and whites, city officials reported yesterday.

In 2005, 6 out of every 1,000 babies born in the city died before reaching their first birthdays, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The most recent national figure available, for 2004, was 6.8 per 1,000; New York City has had lower infant mortality than the nation as a whole for several years.

Sen. Graham: White House Held Military Lawyers In 5 Hour Meeting and ‘Tried To Force Them To Sign A Prepared Statement’

This morning, President Bush was questioned about Gen. Colin Powell’s letter criticizing White House legislation that would authorize torture. Bush tried to downplay Powell’s letter by pointing to another letter signed by the military’s top uniformed lawyers saying they supported Bush’s plan:

BUSH: There’s all kinds of letters coming out — and today, by the way, active duty personnel in the Pentagon, the JAG, supported the concept that I have just outlined to you.

Massey to leave Morehouse in 'very good shape'
By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/15/06

Massey, 69, announced Thursday at the college's opening convocation ceremony he will retire at the end of this academic year. He is the ninth president in the 139-year history of Morehouse, the nation's only all-male historically black college and the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent African-Americans.

During Massey's tenure, the college completed its most successful capital campaign — raising more than $120 million — $15 million over its goal. Morehouse built a 74,000-square-foot leadership center and spearheaded a revitalization effort for the West End neighborhood that surrounds the campus.

Thursday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy marks the third time the state has been blocked in federal court. Murphy blocked enforcement of a similar law passed by the Legislature in 2005. The Legislature refined the law this year, but Murphy again blocked it prior to the July primaries and subsequent runoffs. A Fulton County Superior Court judge also blocked enforcement of the law for the July primaries, and a decision on whether to block the law permanently is still pending.

Photo ID law gets blocked a 3rd time
Ruling lets some vote without it
By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/15/06

Liza is annoyed.

I probably saw this picture about the same time as she did.

I saw it last night, though for the life of me I can't find the post that had it. It's a picture of 20 bloggers that met with ex-Prez Clinton the other day. Liza's problem is, Mr. Clinton is the only 'black' person in the room.

I am just shocked at the glee with which Peter Daou has shown his disrespect for Pam Spaulding, Steve Gilliard, Louis Pagan, Chris Rabb, Earl Dunovant and me when he decided to not invite neither of us, or for that matter, any other black or latino bloggers.

E. Coli Cases Traced to Bagged Spinach
By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press Writer
7:17 PM PDT, September 14, 2006

WASHINGTON — An outbreak of E. coli in eight states has left at least one person dead and 50 others sick, federal health officials said Thursday in warning consumers nationwide not to eat bagged fresh spinach.

The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 others were also sickened, said Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The outbreak has sickened others -- eight of them seriously -- in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.

For those of you (like me) who don't have HBO, this guy did us a huge favor in the process of listing all the Spike Lee joints up on YouTube.

The biggest surprise was finding the entire version of When the Levees Broke, a 4 hour documentary on Katrina and New Orleans. This film is Lee’s best non-fiction work and the best Katrina related film I have seen. The film goes to the very roots of the Katrina disaster (the man-made one) following the trails of race, Louisiana oil and politics.

The entire film comes in 26 parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.
Also check out this montage submitted by a user: When the Levees Broke
Another doc by Spike on the Gore and Bush 2000 Election aptly titled We Wuz Robbed

I picked this up from Boing-Boing, which also had BitTorrent links. Think I'll burn me a personal DVD.

American Hot Sausage is now on my daily read list.

She said she doesn't research groups to which she campaigns because she's too busy with work and family, isn't computer savvy and doesn't have enough money to hire someone to do it for her.

You betta ask somebody then. Especially since it takes, like, four seconds to pull up info on the Konservative Kitizen Kouncil.

Meanwhile, a tip of the hat to shuffling and going along to get along:

A high-ranking black Republican defended Thomas and said the Alabama Democratic Party was out of line because historically it was the racist party in Alabama.

"The Democrat Party shouldn't be opening this can of worms," said Richard Finley, chairman of the Alabama Republican Council, the black advocacy arm of the state Republican Party. "At the end of the day, are we better off judging candidates on their own merit, or do we continue to fight the civil rights battles and the Civil War? [P6: Ask your white boys, son. Ask the people she spoke to. This is the EXACT can of worms that needs exposure.]

Candidate appears with 'racist' group
By Mike Linn
Montgomery Advertiser
September 4, 2006

A Republican appellate court candidate was recently photographed soliciting votes at a meeting of the right-wing Council of Conservative Citizens, considered a racist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

P.V. white supremacist sentenced to 80 months
Saturday, September 09, 2006

CAMDEN - A Pennsville man was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison Friday on charges of selling rifles, shotguns and handguns without the required federal license to deal in firearms and for being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler, sitting in Camden, also ordered Gabriel Carafa, 25, to pay a $2,000 fine and to serve three years of supervised release upon the completion of his prison sentence. Kugler sentenced Carafa's co-defendant, Craig Orler, 29, also of Pennsville, to 130 months in federal prison on Aug. 29.

Kozak, who works at a firehouse in the 6200 block of North California, was taken into custody Thursday night, Franklin said.

...They found two fully automatic rifles, more than 60 other guns, ammunition, a bulletproof vest with swastika patches, posters of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi paraphernalia.

..."As an officer of color growing up in Chicago, I cannot say I am not surprised - but I am disturbed," Franklin said. "He's bought large amounts of weapons. What really bothers me is he has a lot of receipts for Desert Eagles, Glock 45s and other weapons we could not find - dating back to 1991."

Police are investigating what Kozak might have done with those weapons. Franklin said police have reason to believe some weapons might have gone to individuals in Michigan.

Raid yields guns, Nazi paraphernalia
September 8, 2006
By Frank Main and Fran Spielman Staff Reporters

The police raided a Chicago firefighter's North Side apartment overnight and recovered more than 60 guns and a host of Nazi paraphernalia, authorities said today.

Ted Kozak, 55, was charged with two counts of felony unlawful use of a weapon by Cook County prosecutors, said police Lt. John Franklin of the Calumet Area gun team.

This Richard Barrett is a particual asshole...what benefit does one get from this? Just the satisfaction of publically attacking Black folks. Assholes like this get off on your stress. They're vampires.

Appeal filed over Kennard's cleared conviction
By Jerry Mitchell

White supremacist Richard Barrett appealed Tuesday to the state Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction of decorated Korean War veteran Clyde Kennard.

"It's time Mississippi went on the offensive against these gravediggers of the American way of life," said Barrett, who heads the National Movement, based in Learned.

A three-month investigation by The Clarion-Ledger revealed the African-American veteran went to prison for a crime he never committed after refusing to abandon his quest to enroll at a local all-white university. The lone witness against Kennard, Johnny Roberts, recanted his testimony that implicated Kennard.