The Trouble With Electing Caesar

America's campaign for Emperor is becoming nasty.

What shameful accusations are being tossed around: an ambitious, privileged young John Kerry, who spent a brief stint in Vietnam beefing up the hero section of his resume, never actually did some of the things he claims or at least didn't do them under the circumstances he claims. Since his heroic deeds included chasing after a wounded man and shooting him in the back and skippering a machine gun-mounted speed boat that ran up and down rivers shooting peasants desperate enough to appear in their own fields, there is reason for concern.

Moore: Bush 'Didn't Tell the Truth'

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

BOSTON — This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 27, 2004 that has been edited [by fox, ed] for clarity.

It was a match-up the media and political observers have longed for. No, not George W. Bush against John Kerry. It's Michael Moore (search) against Bill O'Reilly.

Moore, the director who made "Fahrenheit 9/11" (search) and created one of the election season's biggest uproars, said he wouldn't go on "The O'Reilly Factor" until O'Reilly saw the entire movie. And he said any conversation would have to be aired without any editing and with the opportunity for Moore to ask O'Reilly questions.

This is beautifully produced and provocative, check it out. For full coverage of the RNC check out our dedicated feed.

midwest unrest writes: A new 10-page comic book attack on the elections. Read and laugh. Print out and distribute. Available at http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/

http://www.midwestunrest.net/comic.pdf

low res version for web viewing:
http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/comicbook.pdf

hi res version for printing:
http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/comicbookhires.p df"

Hope is on the Way

The Disturbing Words of John Edwards

I heard several lines from John Edwards' convention speech on the radio before I clicked it off. Anymore and I would have vomited.

As it was, I experienced a horrible flashback to being a twelve-year old at the Midwest Baptists' Camp Sycamore, sitting in the sweltering cinderblock meeting hall, shirt stuck to the back of a card-table chair, while a strutting little preacher sprayed beads of sweat and globs of spit into the twilight yelling about hell.

Enforced Democracy: the Bolivian Referendum


Jennifer Whitney

After a long day of tension, rumors, and ocasional provocations, Bolivian polling stations have closed and the counting of votes is underway. But the results are already known. Regardless of whether the “yes” vote or the “no” vote wins, Bolivia’s most valuable natural resource – natural gas – will remain in the hands of the
transnationals.

Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, has long had its wealth plundered by foreigners. First, it was the realization by the Spanish in the sixteenth century that a small hill in the southeast of the country was comprised almost entirely of silver. For two centuries, the wealth extracted from Cerro Rico in Potosí was, according to Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, “the primary nourishment of the capitalist development of Europe.” Next it was saltpeter, desperately needed as fertilizer for exhausted European soil, and plundered by the English. Then during the second world war, Bolivia’s tin was mined and sold at approximately ten times less the market price, leading to massive strikes, and massacres of the workers, who were only demanding to be paid a living wage. Now, the world wants Bolivia’s gas – the second largest reserves in Latin America. But Bolivians are sick of watching
the wealth of their nation stolen from underneath their feet.

"Threat of Police Pickets Adds to Boston's Worries"

John Kifner, New York Times

Boston, July 17 — Besides the threat of a terrorist attack at the
Democratic National Convention here later this month, the police will
have to deal with at least 70 sets of demonstrators, including
opponents of abortion, particularly passionate in this heavily Roman
Catholic area; Quakers who want to protest the war in Iraq with 800
pairs of empty combat boots and a plowshare forged from 10,000 spent
bullet casings; anarchists; Buddhists — and even themselves.

That's right. Boston police officers, along with the city's
firefighters, are locked in a long-running contract dispute and plan
to picket several convention events, beginning with the 32 welcoming
parties for various state delegations given by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"America's Pathetic Liberals: The Sequel"

Featuring Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11"

John Chuckman

The controversy over Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" provides sharp insight into contemporary American liberalism. You might think from all the noise that something radical or revealing or important was happening.

But you would be wrong. The noise represents another example of what Robert Hughes called America's "Culture of Complaint," an endless bickering, never deciding anything but enjoyed purely for itself.

The film is at its heart a thoroughly conservative document, a fact which generally has gone unnoticed except in Robert Jensen's acute review, "A Stupid White Movie." Worse, it explains virtually nothing about events it claims to examine.

Fundrace.org

Want to know exactly how much your next-door neighbors, those folks down the block, or that person across the country, gave to Bush or Kerry? Or Dean? Or Kucinich?

Want to see precisely how blue or red your city or state looked recently? Here's a great site for getting a lot of information many people might not expect to find in public. Most revealing!

Republicans Dip Freedom Fries in "W Ketchup", Not
Heinz

WASHINGTON, (AFP) — Americans allergic to the subtle
Democratic flavor of Heinz ketchup can now plunge
their "freedom fries" into a 100-percent guaranteed,
patriotic alternative: "W Ketchup."

"You don't support Democrats. Why should your
ketchup?" says the W Ketchup Internet site
www.wketchup.com, which promises a totally US-made
condiment, right down to the bottle....

"Choose Heinz and you're supporting Teresa and her
husband's Gulfstream Jet, and liberal causes such as
Kerry for President," it warns....

Testimonials on the company's Internet site are
glowing for the Republican-style ketchup.

"Thank you for giving us a delicious American
alternative to the standard Heinz Ketchup. Henry Heinz
may have been a great American, but I have absolutely
no interest in supporting The Kerry's anti-American
causes," wrote "S.S" of Akron, Ohio.

Heinz says it is non-partisan, stressing that all the
Heinz family trusts together hold less than four
percent of the stock. Neither Teresa Heinz, nor her
husband, have any role in management, it stresses....

"Cheney Faces Criminal Indictments:
Other Illegal Actions Raise Warning Flags at White House"

Teresa Hampton, Capitol Hill Blue

Vice President Dick Cheney faces criminal indictments for illegal activities while CEO of energy giant Halliburton and also illegally intervened to secure a $7 billion no-bid contract for his former employer after his election to office, an analysis by the White House counsel’s office concludes.