Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards

Jumble sales are organized and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

If no one out there understands
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a T-shirt away
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

By Billy Bragg

5 finger (digital) discount the complete song (5mb / mp3 format)

Is The Fix In?

Greg Palast had a special report on his BBC show last night about the election, and it's a doozy. Based on his investigation, Mr. Palast strongly believes Bush will take office for a second term with an organized election fraud effort that will dwarf what happened in 2000. Something called "caging lists", trick ballots, thousands of missing absentee ballots, challenging thousands of voters (including many who don't have a current address.....because they're currently serving in Iraq!), intimidation and electronic vote fraud are just a few of the tactics being used.

A summary of his report is available on the BBC web site. Apparently the program was aired worldwide on BBC networks and affiliates where it was a top story, except in the US of course. Figures.

Greg did an interview this afternoon on the Alex Jones show where he quickly went over much of his information and thinks Democrats (he says he talked to Edwards) are ill prepared to handle this blitz of fraud (they're planning on getting lawyers involved in everything which could backfire). You can listen to that interview right here (mp3 / 9 minutes / 700kb)

Is the fix in? We're only a few days away from finding out. And if it is, what are we going to do about it?

10/28 Update: The report aired on Democracy Now! today (October 28th), followed by a live in-studio interview with Greg Palast. He believes we'll have another fiasco in Florida, along with Ohio and New Mexico among others. You can listen/watch/read the transcript of the show at the Democracy Now! web site.

Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote
Postal Experts Hunt for Missing Ballots in Florida
Florida's computers have already counted thousands of votes for George W. Bush

Interesting.

Is 'Al Qaeda' the Modern Incarnation of 'Emmanuel Goldstein'?

Tim Ryan on the Draft

One of the few decent people in Congress? Check out this Quicktime video clip (2mb) and watch Tim Ryan lashes out against the current adminstration getting pissy about rumors of them ordering a new military draft in 2005 if George gets 4 more years.

On a related note, check out this video clip from the Daily Show where George says "we will not have an all volunteer army" at a recent campaign stop, before befuddled looking Republicans in the crowd yelled out and "corrected" his dumb ass. Freudian slip?

Digital Satisfaction

Slap Bush
http://www.deganso.com/slapbush/
Slap him as many times as you can in 20 seconds and submit your score. Funny reaction shots.

Slap The Candidate
http://www.slapthecandidate.com
This one lets you smack Kerry as well, if so inclined. Check out the embedded links on stuff in the background.

Punch Bush
http://www.ihateyoursuv.com/media.html
Get in some good punches before he turns into Alfred E. Newman.

Punch The President
http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/punchpresident/play.php
Some good moves.

Warp Bush
http://www.urban75.com/warp/bush.html
Make W look like Herman Munster with Java technology.

Bush Game
http://www.bushgame.com
This one gets my vote for the best. It's just awesome. An entire online flash-based video game (which you can download and play offline as well) made by the people who also created the kick ass Emogame. You play as various american heros (Mr. T., Christopher Reeves, 80's Hulk Hogan, an average American that got off his fat ass to do something and Jesus, to name a few) out to kick the asses of the current stooges in DC and their corporate buddies. You'll also learn a few things about the economy, taxes, policies, etc with various information breaks along the way. Pure genius.

One Page Case

Fellow Blogger Sheryl put up some good posts over on her Thought Vacuum blog the other day. Check them out and join in the discussions.

One Page Case Against Bush

One Page Case For Kerry

If you think they wont do it....

An article quoting a white house press corps reporter who was able to read a Pentagon memo concerning the forthcoming draft. Example quote: "As I read it, an 18 year old girl with two children and no husband to support her will be subject to the draft. There was a discussion about what to do with the children and if the family cannot raise them during the draftee's tour of duty, then some kind of Federal Child Care center will have to suffice." Another example quote: "The White House and the Pentagon have worked out a plan to call up all reservists and National Guard units if and when Bush is reelected. The moment that the election results are poured in concrete, orders, now drawn up and waiting, will be issued throughout the United States. I am not speaking of a few units but ALL US Guard and Reserve units. On the same subject, the pending Universal Draft is also a done deal. Everything is place awaiting the President's signature. This is planned for June of 2005 and contains some real shockers. Women will be called up as well as men. There will be absolutely no deferments of any kind permitted. Persons with medical problems such as diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, chronic asthma, physical deformities such as a club foot or hunch back, vision problems, etc. will be called up!"

Families plan to skip military draft
Resistance to Backdoor Draft
Desperate for manpower with which to fight its projected 25-year “war on terrorism” in Iraq and elsewhere, the Bush administration has resorted to several measures just short of military conscription.
57-year-old veteran called for duty
A Draft After the Elections?
Hidden Agenda: A National Draft in the Future? (by Howard Dean)
The Blatant Truth - Impending Draft
Powell Says War Service Should Pertain to Everyone

I'd bet my car that George 2, Dick and the neocons collecting the bulk of the plunder will do it. They'll probably give it one of their patented Orwellian names though, like they do with a lot of their other policies.

John Edwards has said there will be no draft if he and Kerry are elected, but quite frankly I don't trust them with this either. If Kerry decides we need to hit Iran (which seems to be a given no matter who gets to play President) and/or another 9/11 happens here then I can easily see either of them playing up the patriotism card, along with basically saying "we hate to do this but....." and sign in to law or whatever everything that is apparently ready to go. Maybe Kerry's camp will tinker with the bills a little bit to remove some of the more ridiculous stuff, but some form of it (which apparently was introduced in Congress by Democrats) will go through if these wars continue. Everyone is in denial mode right now (like they'd really admit it before the election) but watch out in 2005.

Do You Feel A Draft?

Karma?

O'Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit

Hours after Bill O'Reilly accused her of a multimillion dollar shakedown attempt, a female Fox News producer fired back at the TV star today, filing a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, and explicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies. [Read] a copy of Andrea Mackris's complaint, an incredible page-turner that quotes O'Reilly, 55, on all sorts of lewd matters. Based on the extensive quotations cited in the complaint, it appears a safe bet that Mackris, 33, recorded some of O'Reilly's more steamy soliloquies. For example, we direct you to his Caribbean shower fantasies. While we suggest reading the entire document, TSG will point you to interesting sections on a Thailand sex show, Al Franken, and the climax of one August 2004 phone conversation.

Good. Grief.

Columbus Was A Prick

It's "Columbus Day" here in the United States. I give you excerpts from a 1998 article entitled Columbus Day is nothing to celebrate:

In 1492, as any schoolchild knows, Columbus sailed from Spain with three small ships, searching for a new sea route to the rich countries of India and China. He didn’t find India, but he did stumble upon the Americas. On October 12, his flagship, the Santa Maria, ran aground on a reef just off the coast of the island of Hispaniola. The local chief of the Arawaks, the native inhabitants, rescued Columbus's crew and welcomed them warmly, in accordance with their customs.

The Spanish sailors did not share the Arawak custom of sharing and peaceable coexistence. They spied the tiny gold ornaments the Arawaks were sporting and decided that the region was swimming in riches. Columbus also noticed that the locals had no weapons capable of resisting Spanish rule. As historian Howard Zinn documents in “A People’s History of the United States” (Harper & Row, 1980), Columbus wrote in his journal, "They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane .... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

After King Ferdinand granted him governorship of the region, Columbus and his men captured Arawaks by the thousands, forcing them to procure gold. Those who could not produce the required amounts had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. Columbus forced the men to work in Spanish gold mines and the women to grow food. Natives who resisted the new rulers were hunted down with dogs and burned alive or hanged.

Despite these horrors, history books commonly portray Columbus as a hero. Historians have long sugarcoated the slaughter, noting Columbus' atrocities only in passing or explaining away his barbarous acts as being "just how things were done in those days."

We have been misled about Christopher Columbus. As the truth emerges, Americans of all ethnic and religious affinities are joining Native Americans in refusing to celebrate Columbus Day. The death and slavery of Indians is nothing to celebrate.

If you'd like to learn some more interesting facts and information about the guy that you didn't get in your school history books, I suggest the following links:

Columbus Day - The Great Lie
The Truth About Columbus
Uncommemorating "Columbus Day"

No Palestinian State, No Peace for America

Now we know the truth. Neither the Bush administration nor the Israeli government has any intention whatsoever of allowing the Palestinians to establish their own state.

That means, of course, that both have been lying, not only to the Palestinians but to the American people. It also means that there will be no end to the conflict in the Middle East no matter what we do. A peaceful, stable Middle East is an utter impossibility without justice for the Palestinians.

[....]

Now, you might fairly ask yourself, "What do I care what happens to the Palestinians?" Well, to be brutally frank, if you don't know any personally, the answer is probably "nothing." But ask yourself another question, "What do I care what happens to me and other Americans?" Ah, there's the rub, because our fate and the fate of the Palestinians are inextricably bound together. Those 3,000 Americans who died on Sept. 11, 2001 died in large part directly because of U.S. policy vis-à-vis Israel and the Palestinians.

Osama bin Laden has said time and again, as have others, that as long as the Palestinians bleed, so will we. And he's right. Despite the heifer dust spread by the Bush administration, the plight of the Palestinians is the fuel that motivates virtually all the terrorism. The terrorists don't hate us because we are rich or free. They hate us because, in cahoots with the Israelis, we have brutalized and deprived of their human rights the innocent Palestinian people.

Read the complete article, written by Charley Reese

Antimatter Weapons

When Bill Joy wrote “Why the Future doesn't need us” over 4 years ago, he couldn't have imagined that humanity, the US Air Force exactly, could be stupid enough to pursue antimatter weapons. He can now add one more danger facing the 21th century to his list.

The New World Order

Think current US foreign policy is a direct response to the attacks of September 11th?

Think again.

Jackass of the Week: Dick Cheney

For lying through his teeth at the Vice Presidential debate on Tuesday night.

For hilariously giving out the wrong web address to a site he said people should go to for fact checking on what he was saying. A site which ended up being redirected to the site belonging to billionare George Soros, who doesn't like Bush/Cheney very much and makes it pretty clear right there on his main page. On top of that, the correct nonpartisan site he meant to reference wasn't on his side when they checked the facts on what he said.

For saying the first time he met John Edwards was Tuesday night when they got up on that stage, despite there being at least two occasions where they were photographed and videotaped standing near eachother or sitting side-by-side at some events. I can already see the Kerry/Edwards campaign ads for that one.

For general fear mongering on live television to try to get the paranoid scared-shitless votes from the flag-waving morons that are in denial and/or buy everything these idiots say hook line and sinker.

For saying he'd do everything the same with Iraq, despite knowing what they know now (I bet a lot of people did a double-take and cursed at their TV after hearing that one).

And last but certainly not least, for being a soulless asshat.

RFID In Driver's Licenses

Lawmakers consider 'smart' driver's licenses

A controversial technology already planned for tracking consumer products could be used to create "smart" driver's licenses that emit signals readable from a distance.

Virginia Considers Using Radio Frequency ID Chips in Licenses

Virginia is considering becoming the first state to embed drivers licenses with radio frequency identification chips. The chips known as RFID chips would store detailed personal information about the individual. Yesterday during a hearing on the issue, Kent Willis of the ACLU of Virginia called on lawmakers to reject the plan because of privacy issues. He said "Almost everyone carries a driver's license, and RFID chips allow people to be tracked...FBI agents, for example, could sweep up the identities of everyone at a political meeting, protest march, gun show, or Islamic prayer service."

RFID technology continues to move toward screwing everyone over one way or another in terms of privacy. There is a whole section about RFID available on this site with lots of multimedia, links and information. I suggest getting involved locally, finding out what your state and businesses are trying to do with it, and then urging your elected monkeys to oppose the more extreme uses for this technology. A few letters and phone calls to businesses considering this stuff with words like "boycott" probably wouldn't hurt either. Let them know that you know what they know that they probably don't want you to know until it's already in place.

Are You Registered?

As registration deadlines fall, hints of voter boom emerge

"If you walk into our mail room, we have stacks and stacks of new forms coming in," said Kara Sinkule, spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who oversees elections. "It's a great problem to have." Her state is on pace to see a 50% increase in new voters for this presidential election compared to 2000. In the past year, 371,376 new voters registered, with 87,110 new voters in September alone. And the surge grew even bigger in the first few days of October.

So are you registered? For many states, registration deadlines started this weekend, but it's not too late for others. If you don't want to deal with potential traffic jams at your local office, then do it online and mail it. Many states require that your registration be postmarked before the deadline, so it doesn't matter if they get it (or process it) after the deadline.

I registered online and it wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be. All I did was hit one of the many sites, answered a couple questions and got a printable PDF file of all my info all formatted nicely on the official form. Then I printed that out, followed the added directions for my state (New York) and mailed it to the address at the bottom of it. Done. If you're worried about it being "lost", spend a few extra cents at the post office and slap a Delivery Confirmation sticker on the envelope.

Yeah there are problems with the electronic voting machines in many places, but it doesn't matter. If you're 18+, be a part of history with millions of others and cast a vote this year. If you'd like to take it a step further, join the Election Watch Crew over @ blackboxvoting.org and make history there as well by reporting any shady tactics that might be going on at your local voting booth. If you're not 18 yet, you can still help by way of bugging everyone over 18 that you know to go vote.

Places to register to online:
rockthevote.com
declareyourself.com
smackdownyourvote.com
registrationbyworkingassets.com

Give Me A Break

There was a good Give Me A Break segment on 20/20 last night. John Stossel goes into presidential debates in general, how they came to be more or less controlled by the two major parties, who lays down the assload of rules and shuts out 3rd party candidates. There is also some comparisons to past debates, a bit of history and more. I thought it was interesting.

Read the commentary/transcript at the link below, or watch the entire segment in streaming video (windows media / 3mb / 4 minutes)

Debatable Debate - Was The Kerry-Bush Match a Real Debate?

Are You Surprised? Really.

US Press calls Bush-Kerry debate a tie

Washington - Both President George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry forcefully defended their positions on Iraq, and their first televised debate was enough of a tie to entice voters on to their next encounter, the leading American daily newspapers agreed on Friday.

"If Americans who tuned into last night's presidential debate were waiting for one of the candidates to catch the other in a fatal error, or leave him stammering, the event was obviously a draw," wrote The New York Times.

Figures. Meanwhile, Three Polls say Kerry Wins First Debate. Not to mention all those quick online polls done by CNN, AOL, and MSNBC, to name a few. Read America Clearly Sees At Last That The Emperor Is Naked.

Apparently Fox News hit some record ratings last night. These numbers lifted from the site of a goofy guy named Drudge:

FOXNEWS PEAK HITS RECORD LEVELS: 6.9 RATING - 9,561,000 VIEWERS FOR DEBATE; CNN MAX 4,364,000; MSNBC TOPS OUT AT 1,851,000

I figured it was only a matter of time before someone whipped up a video clip of W's reactions. Check out Faces of Frustration.

Finally, from Time Magazine: Reality Check: George Bush & Reality Check: John Kerry

Yeah, Kerry Won That

Hands down. Here's a good article about the debate by William Rivers Pitt over at Truth Out.

W sure seemed to get annoyed a lot and kept trying to get more time to give a rebuttal to something Kerry got him on. Funny. The split screen on c-span with some of his facial expressions while waiting his turn to speak were priceless. Kudos to c-span for the split shot; other networks only did it occasionally. CNNfn had an interesting live graph thing going across the screen where I guess they were somehow getting instant responses from the audience. According to folks over at the Majority Report blog, it started out pretty supportive of W.... until about 20 minutes in, when people probably realized he was bombing. When I flipped over, I noticed the thing take a dip almost every time he finished talking. Kudos to CNNfn (of all channels) as well for putting up something like that and making things a little more interesting.

I give you Matthew Good, a Canadian who watched and feels that Kerry commanded the entire thing from the start. He had some good thoughts about the debate and ended it with: When all is said and done, both parties are just as conniving as the other. Unfortunately, such underhandedness is vying for a position that will ultimately effect the lives of tens of millions of non-Americans. And while both candidates made reference to the 1000+ dead US service men and women that have died overseas, neither mentioned the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis that have lost their lives to help make the United States a safer place.