Lawsuit Planned Against Election Fraud in 2004

Sorry I don't have much time to blog today, but I ran across some great news to share. Robert Kennedy Jr. is working to file a lawsuit against the GOP operatives who stole the 2004 election for George W. Bush.

Here's an excerpt but please click on the link and go read the entire interview.

Public Relations News, Features, and Analysis - PR Week:

"PRWeek: This story didn't have a 'smoking gun'; was there one person coordinating this entire operation?

Kennedy: There's never going to be 100% certitude that the election was stolen, because the only way you could get that is by recounting the ballots, and the recount was illegally derailed by Republican operatives. The mastermind behind the efforts in Ohio was Kenneth Blackwell, along with [Toledo elections official] Bernadette Noe. But on a national level, it's [Republican National Committee chairman] Kenneth Mehlman and Karl Rove."

PRWeek: Is there a next step?

Kennedy: I've been meeting with attorneys... to devise a litigation strategy. And I would say that very soon we'll be announcing lawsuits against some of the individuals and companies involved.

Bush Wants to Create More WMD

The Bush administration is planning to create deadly biological weapons in a lab on an earthquake fault in San Francisco's east bay.

PlanetSave - California appellate judge sees proposed biodefense lab as 'troublesome':

A federal appellate judge said she found it "troublesome'' that the Bush administration plans to open a lab for testing lethal agents including HIV, plague and anthrax in the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area.

However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave no indication Tuesday of when it will rule on a lower court's decision to allow the government to open the biodefense lab at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

Administration officials have been preparing the lab for years, and said this week it plans to open the facility by August.

Local residents asked a federal court to block the project in 2003. The following year, a federal judge said it could proceed, and the opponents appealed.

The government failed to consider the possibility that a plane or truck could be deliberately crashed into the site, said Stephan Volker, the opponents' lead attorney.

Volker said his clients want a new, thorough environmental assessment report that would supplant the one the Department of Energy conducted in 2002, or an even broader environmental impact review.

The facility would test airborne agents, which could also include hantavirus, influenza, hepatitis, Q fever, brucellis, herpes and salmonella, among others, on live animals.

Bastards!

Who Will It Be: Kitty Killer Frist or Mean McCain?

I'm sort of numb these days, maybe in shock over the loss of our freedom, our democracy and our free press. After Bush stole the election in 2004, it seems unlikely that Diebold will allow we the people to chose the next president, so I'm wondering who they will foist upon us in 2008? Will it be Kitty Killer Frist or Mean McCain?

Frist is so clueless, he actually exposed what a a cold-hearted sumbitch he is in his own autobiography, "Transplant". I'm guessing he didn't realize that actual caring human beings would disapprove of his visiting animal shelters in the Boston suburbs, collecting cats, taking them home, treating them as pets for a few days, then taking them to the lab to die.

'It was, of course, a heinous and dishonest thing to do, and I was totally schizoid about the entire matter. By day, I was little Billy Frist, the boy who lived on Bowling Avenue in Nashville and had decided to become a doctor because of his gentle father and a dog named Scratchy. By night, I was Dr. William Harrison Frist, future cardiothoracic surgeon, who was not going to let a few sentiments about cute, furry little creatures stand in the way of his career. In short, I was going a little crazy.'

Frist has since commented about the power he felt when holding the last beats of a dog's heart in his hand. Wonder what happened to poor old Scratchy?

"Little Billy Frist", fits a profile of the serial killer in Wikipedia "future serial killers often kill animals, like dogs and cats, and frequently for their solitary enjoyment rather than to impress peers" It wouldn't unthinkable to have a serial killer president (Frist) following the mass murderer president we have now.

On the other hand, if Chris Matthews has influence, our next president will be Mean McCain. If you watch closely when Matthews talks to McCain you can see him fantasizing about humping McCain's leg.

In 1998, at a Republican fundraiser, McCain said that "the reason Chelsea Clinton is so ugly" is that "she's the child of Janet Reno and Hillary Clinton."

Besides being homophobic, his remarks were cruel to Chelsea who was a child and not a political personality. McCain's insensitivity to his own family is evident by his willingness to make nice with Bush after Bush's Brain (Turdblossom or shit-for-brains) started a smear campaign against McCain's family in South Carolina during a contested primary race.

So I'm putting my money on McCain if we can pry Matthews off his leg. All the other biggies in the corporate press are also in love with McCain.

Anybody think Guliani will get the nomination? He was awarded sainthood, by the corporate media, after 9/11, but the right-wingnuts probably won't accept him unless he follows McCain's example and kisses the feet of Jerry Falwell.

Anyone have any other ideas about who our next president will be?

Biodiesel: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Yesterday we were excited to see a biodiesel-powered Jetta and pick-up truck in a parking lot in Santa Cruz. We always see a lot of Prius vehicles in our peace-loving, ecoconscious community. We view them as signs of change, a move toward breaking Americans' addiction to petroleum.

One year ago, Jorah Roussopoulos opened a solar powered biodiesel pump at the Mountain Feed and Farm Supply on Highway 9 in Ben Lomond, then last Friday, a major retailer in Santa Cruz County switched from traditional diesel to biodiesel. The price, $3.16 per gallon, was the same as for the regular diesel being sold by a competitor across the street.

Jorah said he has more than 300 biodiesel customers and sales have quadrupled in eight months. At first he charged $3.71 per gallon but the price has come down about 30 cents since then. He can't match the USA station, which set its price to build a customer base. Even so, Jorah isn't worried about the competition, "We'll be sending people their way," he said. "I'd like to see a biodiesel station on every corner."

The environmental benefits of biodiesel are twofold: Emissions of greenhouse gases and carbon monoxide are reduced and demand for oil shrinks because the mix consists of 1 percent petroleum and 99 percent vegetable oil.

Both biodiesel outlets get fuel from the same source, Pacific Biofuel of Moss Landing.

The deal came about when the CEO of Pacific Biofuel and Kris Moller, whose father owns the USA chain, held a (surf) board meeting on the water.

Two local school districts are trying biodiesel in their school buses.

Prior to the opening of USA biodiesel pump, the bulk of Pacific Biofuel's customers have received their biodiesel via home delivery of 55-gallon drums. Although convenient, this delivery service is not exactly cheap. Customers have been paying up to $3.85 per gallon to have the fuel delivered to their door.

Older vehicles that use diesel would require a retrofit for biodiesel, but that doesn't seem necessary for newer models.

More to come....

Google Founder Regrets Selling Out

My Way News - Brin Says Google Compromised Principles: "Google Inc. (GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google's rivals accommodated the same demands - which Brin described as 'a set of rules that we weren't comfortable with' - without international criticism, he said.

'We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference,' Brin said.

I hope Google isn't going down a slippery slope.

Respect for Those Other Sentient Beings

My friend Candi, whom I admire, has a deep respect for non-human animals and has raised her daughter, Sarah, to feel the same. Sarah's goal in life is to be a cat lady (a noble aspiration in my opinion).

Raising two Rhode Island Red chickens has shown me that chickens are more intelligent and communicative that I'd realized. I haven't personally become acquainted with fish, but Candi and Sarah have and I was surprised to learn more about that species in an email from Candi:

I also bought Sarah gold fish and they lived a very long life. We gave them to a friend of ours when we left for Wyoming and they were about 10 years old when they finally died and she said they grew to be about 5 or 6 inches long. I remember that every day when I would feed them they would swim up to greet me. One day I had a green mud mask on my face when I went to give them their feeding. They both took one look at me and swam and hid in their little cave. It was so funny. They were terrified of my green face! Up to that time I didn't realize that they could actually detect my features. I thought they weren't aware who was feeding them only that they were being fed. Animals are so much more aware then people give them credit for. Most people put cats, dogs, and horses in one category and every thing else in another. But after observation and all the reading I have done I think they all are very aware and intelligent but it's just different in each species. I believe each species is just unique.

I was still thinking about Candi's experiences with the goldfish, when my copy of "The Week" magazine arrived with the following editorial statement entitled, "Meat Eaters".

With a mix of fascination and disgust, my daughter’s vegetarian friend was eyeing the raw pile of meat marinating in a bowl on the kitchen counter. “What’s that?” she asked. Maddie’s parents have raised her as a vegetarian of conscience, so to her, beef, chicken, and pork are indistinguishable mysteries—oozing evidence of the murder of one of our animal friends. Even as an enthusiastic carnivore, I find it unsettling to see my dinner through Maddie’s cruelty-free eyes. Before their trip to the grill, my chicken breasts in savory soy/mustard sauce look so much like…slabs of muscle. If I didn’t sometimes feel a craving for meat deep in my brain, I might even feel a twinge of guilt.

As well I should, says fellow carnivore William Saletan in Slate.com. Saletan is a man given to wrestling with ethical dilemmas, and he’s concluded that someday, our great-great-grandchildren will “look back at slaughterhouses the way we look back at slavery.” No radical vegan, Saletan acknowledges that human beings have evolved to crave meat. Human DNA has at least eight genes designed to help us process animal flesh. But now that we no longer need to eat meat to survive, Saletan contends, it’s become morally suspect to slaughter and devour billions of chickens, cows, and pigs. We are learning that animals are capable of complex thought and communication; there’s even growing evidence that they can fear their own deaths. So what to do? Saletan hopes biotechnology can save animals from our primitive appetites. Through cloning and stem-cell techniques, scientists are already learning to grow meat in a petri dish. If it comes to that, though, I think I’ll pass. Rice and beans can be awfully tasty, too.

William Falk
Editor-in-chief

I recently wrote that I hoped that in the future, we'd look back on factory farming in disgust as we now view previous generations who engaged in human slavery. I seriously doubt that Saleten reads my blog, so I assume that this comparison between human slavery and animal slaughter is becoming part of our cultural consciousness.

Chickens Love Watermelon

Isis and Gabby and the remains of their watermelon

Bobby Kennedy Jr. On CNN

Bobby Kennedy Jr. appeared on CNN's The Situation to talk about his article in Rolling Stone. Following is the transcript from that show:

BLITZER (voice-over): Robert Kennedy Jr. charges that a concerted effort was made by high-level Republicans to steal the presidential vote in Ohio. It's new fuel in an already combustible partisan environment, with Republicans on the defensive, and Democrats hoping to reclaim control of Congress this fall.

In a lengthy article in the new edition of "Rolling Stone", Kennedy accuses Republicans of preventing more than 350,000 voters, most of them Democrats, from casting ballots or having their votes counted.

President Bush won Ohio by a little more than 100,000 votes over Senator John Kerry, putting him over the top in electoral votes and sealing his reelection. Kennedy accuses Republicans of getting that margin of victory by, among other things, purging tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, creating long lines to keep Democrats from voting, and rigging the Ohio recount.

To back up his charges, Kennedy cites the early exit polls showing Kerry was winning Ohio. Kennedy contends exit polls are an exact science and, essentially, never wrong. But even pollsters dispute that.

Kennedy lays much of the blame on Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who is now running for governor. Blackwell refused to respond to Kennedy's allegations, and he declined our offer to be interviewed. He's previously denied similar allegations, saying election glitches shouldn't cause the outcome to be questioned.

And there's a noteworthy skeptic about allegations that the Ohio vote was stolen. Senator John Kerry has cited irregularities in the Ohio vote, but he says if he had firm evidence the election was rigged or stolen, he would have taken legal action.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And a Democratic National Committee study of the Ohio vote found significant problems but concluded they did not -- repeat not -- constitute fraud.

Joining us now from New York to talk about these allegations is the author of the article, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and here in Washington is Terry Holt. He was the press secretary for the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign.

Thanks to both of you for joining us.

Why are you reviving these allegations, Robert Kennedy, right now, given the fact that they've been so thoroughly reviewed over the past 2 1/2 years and people have concluded that there's no hard evidence of fraud?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, "ROLLING STONE" CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, there hasn't been that conclusion.

Second of all, there's a lot of new evidence. There's the analysis that was done, not just of the 350,000 votes -- Democratic voters -- mainly Democratic voters that were denied the opportunity to vote, or whose votes weren't counted. But also the 80,000 votes from 12 rural counties in Ohio that were shifted from John Kerry to George Bush, which by themselves would have given Kerry the margin of victory in Ohio.

Plus, there's six other counties where there are high indications of ballot box, that thousands of people lost their votes.

BLITZER: Let me interrupt for a second. I read your long piece in "Rolling Stone". It was very, very long and detailed. I didn't see one individual, though, who says, "You know what? I participated in a massive conspiracy of fraud."

I didn't see any hard evidence that there was someone, and if you're going to talk about a massive fraud, you have to have somebody, presumably, that's going to come forward and say, "You know what? I was involved in this campaign."

KENNEDY: Well, that's not true, Wolf. The people from -- the executives from the Triad Company, which is the vendor for one of the -- for the big voting machine that tabulated more than half the votes in Ohio, has admitted that they fixed the recount. And that they fixed it with county boards of elections in half a dozen counties, at least.

Every single county where Triad -- and you know, there's an example of a -- of a high-level official who participated in a massive fraud, that prevented the recount that would have given Kerry the victory in Ohio.

BLITZER: Let me let Terry Holt respond to that -- Terry.

TERRY HOLT, FORMER BUSH/CHENEY PRESS SECRETARY: Well, first, let's establish, Wolf, that an exhaustive bipartisan study of all 88 counties in Ohio was conducted after the election. And Republicans and Democrats in Ohio, those people most directly affected by this controversy, have agreed that there was no significant or even insignificant fraud that occurred in the election.

I think that, in fact, I'm going to stand Mr. Kennedy's story on its head a little bit. Because I think what was engaged in the last election, a massive effort to flood the polls with new voter registrations, with new absentee ballots, with new ballots of the provisional variety that.

The Democratic Party was such a sour and poisonous taste in its mouth after the Florida election really engaged in an extensive effort to really flood the ballot box, to stuff the ballot box. And so all over the country, not just in Ohio, but in Las Vegas, and in Miami, and other states, there were new voter registrations coming in with the names like Freddy Krueger. Michael Jordan and George Foreman were registered to vote in Ohio.

BLITZER: All right -- let's let Robert Kennedy -- What Terry Holt is saying is just the opposite of what you're saying, is that the Democrats were participating in some phony business in Ohio and other states.

KENNEDY: Well, that's a strong -- and the people that the Republican Party -- I want to say this. This should not be a partisan issue, Wolf. This should be -- people should be outraged about this.

Read the facts in my article. There has been no bipartisan commission, but -- including Democrats that have said there was no hanky-panky or shenanigans in Ohio. That's simply wrong to say that.

There's been complaints. There's been a congressional committee that's been out in Ohio and found massive -- found massive evidence of fraud. The fraud is not something that's been secret. It's been -- it's been exposed to the press for the long time.

There's two issues here. No. 1, why hasn't the national press covered this event? There's no -- there is no legitimate dispute. That there was a massive concerted deliberate effort by high level Republican Party officials to fix the election in Ohio. And the press has not covered this issue.

BLITZER: All right. I'm going -- I'm going to let --

KENNEDY: All my article does...

BLITZER: Hold on. We did cover John Conyers, Congressman John Conyers' report on this. Christopher Hitchens article in "Vanity Fair". All that was covered.

Senator John Kerry himself says in your article in "Rolling Stone", he says this: "Can I tell you to a certainty that it made the difference in the election? I can't. There's no way for me to do that. If I could have done that, then obviously I would have found some legal recourse."

And the Democratic Party has been relatively silent on this issue, as well, Robert Kennedy.

KENNEDY: Well, you know what, Wolf? You're right about that. And I think that's a big problem, that the Democrats backed down too easy on this.

John Kerry has said to me that at the -- at -- during the time -- during the narrow window of time when he had an opportunity to protest this election, he didn't do it, because his attorneys told him that at that point, they didn't have the facts that they needed to make the case.

John has looked at the facts that I produced in this article and particularly the issue about the 12 counties, rural counties where the votes were shifted from Kerry, where 80,000 votes were shifted from Kerry to Bush, and said that his opinion has changed as a result of that.

BLITZER: All right. Terry -- let me let Terry Holt weigh in, as well. Go ahead and respond.

HOLT: Well, I would just say that there was a very smart observation that was made in the very beginning of the article. And that is that American elections are a messy patchwork, county by county, state by state rules and regulations.

And as an example in Florida, in the 2000 election, 66 out of 67 counties in Florida were controlled by the Democratic Party and it resulted in a messy recount, 37 days.

And so our votes are involved in a complex process. But by flooding the ballot box with new invalid registrations, if any political entity is diluting the value of the -- of the honest vote that takes place. And so, our -- our system needs to protect the legal votes from the illegal votes so that those votes count real and like they should.

BLITZER: We have to leave it there. "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" That's the provocative title of the article. You can read it in "Rolling Stone". Robert Kennedy, Terry Holt, thanks very much for coming in.

Apparently Kennedy was also on Tucker Carlson's show, but I'd only watch that show if Jon Stewart was a guest. I'd love to see Stewart smack Carlson down again.

South American Stonehenge

An ancient temple, as old as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, was discovered in the Peruvian Andes. An observatory sits at the top of a 33-foot pyramid and reveals the existence of a previously unknown civilization sophisticated enough to calculate celestial math.

Radiocarbon dates the site at around 2200 B.C., 3 millennia before the Incas.

The temple features a large, round frowning face, oriented toward the winter solstice.

Scientists believe it could be the earliest known representation of the goddess, Pacha Mama.

Another statue of a human figure looks through a window and marks the line of the summer solstice.

Until these ruins were discovered. archaeologists believed that the first sophisticated civilization emerged some 800 years later.

More on this in the L.A. Times.

In Case You Thought We'd Ever Leave Iraq

A long-term occupation of Iraq is planned as evidenced by a U.S. Embassy now under construction there. It takes up 104 acres and is costing us $592 million to build. It will be our largest embassy in the world and will contain 21 buildings and office space for more than 3,000 people.

The Christian Taliban in the News

In Florida the Rev. O'Neal Dozier attended a prayer breakfast (what the hell does that mean - do they have prayer for breakfast?) for Charlie Crist who is running for governor.

Dozier announced that "The Lord Jesus spoke to me and he said, 'There's something I want you to know: Charlie Crist will be the next governor of the state of Florida."

In spite of his public admission that he was hearing voices, he was not treated for mental illness. The president George Whopper Bush, also hears voices, but we believe he's being treated as evidenced by the side-effects of his psych meds (jerky jaw). It's unlikely that the meds have been effective.

An unmarried couple in Black Jack, Missouri were refused a certificate of occupancy for a home they purchased. The Christian Taliban of Black Jack, Missouri demanded to see their marriage certificate and birth certificates for their children.

Senator John McCain's straight-talk express derailed at Liberty University when he kissed and made up with Rev. Jerry Falwell, leader of the Christian Taliban in Virginia. McCain was not welcomed at Liberty University in New York City where hostiles have not yet been subdued by the Christian Taliban.

Titmouse Disaster

Last year, Rob built and installed a bird house under our huge oak trees. Early this spring a Titmouse began singing for a mate in our front yard. His call was soon answered and we watched, as they built their nest in our bird house. After the nest was completed and a respectable amount of time had passed, I opened the door to the bird house and peeked in. There were 4 tiny eggs.

In time the eggs hatched and we observed the parents bringing fat green worms or caterpillars to their young. We peeked while the parents were away and saw the nest filled with four mouths opened wide. All we could see of the baby birds were their mouths. After a week or so the activity around the nest seemed to slow and I opened the door and saw a sleepy eye open - but the young birds didn't open their mouths. This is odd, I thought, but closed the door again to avoid causing stress to the parent birds.

Last weekend, the nest was quiet while we worked in the front yard, so I checked again and found all four baby birds had died. We removed the nest and took it and the baby birds to a local expert, the owner of The Bird Feeder (she has a degree in biology and has a wealth of information). She assured us that our opening the birdhouse wouldn't have driven the parents away and theorized that one of the parents might have died and the burden of feeding 4 babies was too great for the remaining parent. The babies must eat every 15 minutes. Another thought was that the parents might have fed poisoned worms to the young, but I assured her that we don't use pesticides in our yard so we doubt that was the cause. She also talked about how the bird count for Santa Cruz county is down this year and theorized that climate change is a cause. It's possible that the cycle of worms was out of sync with the cycle of the birds.

As we left the store, she said, "I'm sorry for your loss." I was surprised by her comforting words, but she was perceptive because I was feeling sad for the four youngsters who were so close to fledging before they died. Their wings were fully developed.

We are now fairly certain that something happened to the mother bird because the male has been appearing in our front yard and is advertising for a mate. We hope that when he is successful, he'll build a new nest in the same old birdhouse.

Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election? - Bobby Kennedy Jr.

It's about damn time a high-profile person spoke out about the irregularities of the 2004 election. Finally Bobby Kennedy Jr. is breaking the silence in an article in Thursday's Rolling Stone:

THE BRAD BLOG: "[UPDATED] EXCLUSIVE: BOBBY KENNEDY JR. TO QUESTION 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN MAJOR ROLLING STONE FEATURE ARTICLE!": "The article -- headlined on the cover as 'Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?: How 350,000 Votes Disappeared in Ohio' -- has been several months in development and will contend that a concerted effort was undertaken by high-level Republican officials to steal the Election in Ohio -- and thus the country -- in 2004!"

He writes in the 10-page long article, and confirmed to us today, that evidence shows Ohio Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was "certainly in on" the scheme, and there are indications that the effort went all the way up to the White House.

I just want to know what took so long? And will anyone else have the courage to speak out?