Just
in time for the
holidays, the dollar is plumbing
historic depths. With Bush in the White House for four more
years, we don't have to wait for our currency to collapse.
November
24, 2004
Discord
and Discard
According to Cleveland.com,
nearly 1 out of every 3 provisional ballots cast in Cuyahoga County
have been tossed out. Over 5,000 were disqualified because there
was no record of registration. The state's vote is set to be certified
next Monday.
November
23, 2004
The
Improbable and The Impossible
Did you know that the
exit polls were "corrected" late election night to fit
the returns coming in, in spite of the fact that they are never
wrong? Did you know that the statistical chances of PA, OH, and
FL differing so greatly from the exit polls is 662,000 to 1? Steven
Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania maps it out in all
its statistical glory.
Yet
Another Stolen Election
How can 200,000 Ukrainians
be motivated to march in protest to a likely stolen election in
the freezing cold, yet we allow our own citizens to be disenfranchised
so easily? Without consequence or remorse? What gives?
November
19, 2004
Seeing
Double
Ohio
counties are still struggling with counting votes- apparently the
problem now is double counting and double voting. Salon
members get a good look or visit Boston.com
for the AP version.
Where
is the Outrage in Ohio wonders the Free
Press. Warning: the do-nothing Dems may infuriate you.
November
18, 2004
Washington
State Recount
It seems the Washington
governor race is incredibly close- just a few hundred votes separating
the two candidates. Amazingly, in a state Kerry always had locked
up, the Republican is barely in the lead. A full recount has been
called- stay tuned.
November
16, 2004
Recount
News
Ohio's provisional ballots
are almost counted and Ken Blackwell is still threatening to disqualify
ballots without dates of birth on them. Meanwhile, the Green and
Libertarian Parties have raised enough money to do a statewide recount
once the votes are counted. For all kinds of info on the recount,
go to this Ohio
Vigilance .
November
14, 2004
Ain't
Over Yet
When is it over? Possibly
November 23, when votes are certified in New Mexico and Ohio. The
Columbus
Free Press reports extensively on what is happening in Ohio
and gives us a glimmer of hope. If you are in Ohio, your Secretary
of State Kenneth Blackwell intends to follow in Katherine Harris'
footsteps by suppressing the vote all the way to a Congressional
run. Why don't Democrats ever suppress the vote? Why aren't Ohioans
outraged at the number of ballots being discounted, including provisionals
that don't have dates of birth on them? Then there is New
Mexico, where it's a sad story of not enough funding to count
all the votes.
November
13, 2004
No
Traction
The New
York Times takes its turn de-bunking the net rumors of a stolen
election. We'll see what happens when all the provisional ballots
are counted.
November
12, 2004
Stop
Thief!
For all you stolen election
freaks, the Washington
Post has decided to throw some cold water on the conspiracies
floating around the Net. So it wasn't stolen? How about these points?
Or this rebuttal
to the leftie Post? Regardless, this may go down in history as the
most perfect of crimes.
EYE
ON THE MEDIA
November
24, 2004
Poll
Hole
So exit polls show the
challenger winning the election, but returns don't match? No, it's
not America, but Ukraine. Why don't exit polls matter in the debate
in the U.S.? Because the media won't allow the debate to happen-
our democracy is apparently too fragile for that.
November
23, 2004
How
to Dismantle A Nuke
Seems those low yield
nukes that W wanted to develop back in 2002 have lost their funding
from Congress. Sen. Dianne Feinstein was a long-time opponent of
the measure, which was dropped thanks to the work of Rep. David
Hobson (R-OH). Details at Washington
Post.com.
November
22, 2004
The
Shield
Sen. Chris Dodd is introducing
legislation designed to shield a journalist's right to confidentiality
from divulging a source. A slew of high profile cases, including
that of Jim Taricani in Rhode Island and that of a New York Times
reporter, have made this an urgent need. Of course, Dodd is a Dem
so who knows if it'll fly at all.
Also, David Shaw of the
LA
Times reviews how the world is becoming more dangerous for journalists.
Mis-Took
Seems Rep. Ernest Istook
(R-OK) didn't mean anything by it when he inserted language allowing
any 2 committee chairman to look at anyone's tax returns in the
massive spending bill making its way through the negotiation process.
He promises the language will be deleted later today.
November
21, 2004
Shot
Down
The 9/11 Intelligence
Reform Bill (or whatever it's called seems to be dead for now. Why?
Some conservative Republicans objected to a minor provision and
scuttled the negotiated deal. All the ugly details at CNN.
November
19, 2004
Pals
to the End
The number of Bush pioneers
who received appointments in his first term is staggering- 246 people
who raised $100,000 or more got plum positions such as ambassadorships.
More at CNN.
November
18, 2004
Narco
State
NPR reported today that
a UN study shows that opium production in Afghanistan rose almost
66% this year- a bumper crop indeed. While the warlords control
most of the country outside Kabul, Bush crows about the "new
democracy" and lays plans for a Columbia-style scorched earth
attack on the poor farmers who have no other options.
November
3, 2004
A
Nation Divided
We at OutrageNation are
stunned and very, very angry. The sheer breadth of our defeat may
feel at the moment like a repudiation of liberalism and the values
we hold in our hearts, but as sure as we write this, change will
come. But it will only come if we continue the hard work that we
have all started. No one ever said it would be easy, and yesterday
proved that if nothing else.
This has been perhaps
the most difficult day that any of us have ever known. An educated,
principled man has once again been defeated by George W. Bush, likely
the most arrogant and dangerous man to ever hold the office of the
presidency. Our nation has revealed itself to be not more enlightened,
but less. The treachery we have openly witnessed in the last four
years is now validated, at least according to the media and the
right wing apparatchiks that dominate our government. Apparently,
Iraq was a good idea, losing jobs is okay, running up deficits and
destroying the environment is perfectly acceptable. Apparently,
many people are most concerned about gays marrying, an issue that
drove voters to polls in 11 states, including Ohio. Shockingly,
religious fervor, hate and name-calling trumps all our freedoms.
Today we thought we would
be talking about stolen votes, intimidation, all the legal challenges.
Instead, we listen to the words of a gracious loser and choke back
tears, thinking of what could have been. Then, we listen to the
president promise what he will not dliver- unity. There can be unity
in America, but not under the terms he will be selling, Delay and
Frist putting a gun to our heads.
And another thing, we
are always told the majority rules. Well, the majority is wrong
this time (assuming the vote count is to be believed). Our job from
this point forward is to educate and teach Americans about what
we should stand for. And yes, we still believe in what America should
stand for. Not what it is now, which is misled and misinformed,
full of petty uneducated automatons better suited for consuming
junk food and junk TV. We can do better than that. We have in the
past and we will do so again.
Many people will just
give up. Please, do not even think about it. Take your sorrow, your
anger to heart and begin the fight for real change. We must never
give up, never surrender. If we cannot work through government,
then we will work through the media or around them. Telling the
truth, exposing the deceit and watching, always watching. That is
our pledge to you.
The fight has just begun.
The New Prohibition
November
18 , 2004
The forces of prohibition
are again descending on our gluttonous culture. What is to be done?
Perhaps nothing.
[I]f the essential values of the secular world are to prevail in
America as they once did, and the duplicitous corruption of our
national leaders to be exposed as it once was, the denial must stop.
We must have a dialogue with the heartland on terms they can understand.
It does no good to make factual-based arguments as we would among
one another in a rational discussion. We might as well be speaking
French. The heartland does not deal in facts. They deal in faith.
So instead, we must trade in the currency of that faith. We must
present our case in terms of morality.
"The big
danger is one of hubris. There's a tendency after you win your second
term to think you're invulnerable. You're not just king of the mountain,
you've mastered the mountain. That can often lead to mistakes of
excessive pride." David Gergen
"The problem, quite clearly, is we have excited
the Arab world, the Muslim world, to take up arms against us," Walter Cronkite
"George W. Bush is not
the right man for the job and that's why I'm paying to get on a
plane to make sure I get over and vote," B. Carter Looney, U.S. businessman living in Germany
"The worst example of the
influence of special interests that I have ever seen,"
John McCain on the just-signed
Corporate Tax Bill
"It was
a perfect storm for pork, in that they added all these
provisions that were really important to lawmakers in an election
year... It will take days, if not months, to figure out everything
that's in here."
Keith Ashdown, vice
president of Taxpayers for Common Sense
"The
Republicans seem more interested in locking me up for trying to
encourage people to participate in our democracy than locking up
bin Laden for his attacks on our democracy." Michael Moore
"Last
night, I'm afraid, the president looked like a man who showed up
for a nine-minute debate and was terrified to find it was a 90-minute
debate. After nine minutes he'd run out of Karl Rove's one-liners."
Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-VT) on the debate
"I
cannot erase a single name that's inscribed in granite on the Mall
in the Vietnam War Memorial. And to re-open these wounds, I think
is disgraceful, and it's a heck of the commentary on the state of
American politics and the control that consultants and pollsters
have."
Sen. John McCain
An
Oldie but a Goodie:
"To announce that
there should be no criticism of the president, or that we are to
stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
President Theodore
Roosevelt
Number of H1-B Visas for High
Tech Workers:
65,000
(next
year's limit reached in 1 day- October 1st)
Number
of Additional Advanced Degree Holders to be Exempt under 2005 Appropriations
Bill:
20,000
Quote
of
the
Week
"If they make
this rules change, Republicans will confirm yet again that they
simply do not care if their leaders are ethical. If Republicans
believe that
an indicted member should be allowed to hold a top leadership
position in the House of Representatives, their arrogance is
Schedule
