by Donna J. Warren
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0722-01.htm
Published on Thursday, July 22, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
“You demanded Independent Candidates Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo withdraw from the presidential race in favor of NAFTA approving, Iraq invading, Afghanistan bombing, Sudanese pharmaceutical plant bombing, right-wing Israeli prime minister and murderer Ariel Sharon supporting; impeachment of George W. Bush for the forced removal of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide refusing, and mandatory minimum sentencing supporting - John Kerry. “ (more…)
Last Gasp
One breath for revolution
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/54/features/breath.html
Hold your breath as long as you can. But keep reading. Here’s what you’ll experience: your respiration has stopped, but your heart continues beating, converting oxygen from inhaled air into carbon dioxide. With no way out, the CO2 concentrates in the blood, raising its acid levels and lowering the amount of oxygen that makes it to the brain and other organs. You’ll feel this first as a sensation of fullness or saturation, then as light-headedness, possibly altered vision, an inability to focus on these words, and a growing sense of desperation. Eventually, when the CO2 levels reach the “critical line,” your nervous system will override the brain’s command to not breathe, prompting an uncontrollable impulse to open your lungs wide, sucking in sweet, precious air. If you don’t, you’re options are grim: pass out, possibly with brain damage, or die. (more… www.1breathtime.com. )
U.S. House votes to strike comment that 2000 election was stolen.
As highlighted by www.thememoryblog.org, according to a July 16, 2004 AP story
(CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/16/florida.fight.ap/ ):
“Think the passions from the 2000 presidential election have cooled? Certainly not in the House of Representatives, which voted to strike a Florida representative's words from the record after she said Republicans "stole" that closely fought contest.
[...] Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida and several other House Democrats have made that suggestion. They argue that some black voters were disenfranchised in 2000 and problems could occur again this fall.
[...] "I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again," Brown said. "Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said, 'Get over it.' No, we're not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world."
At that point, Buyer demanded that Brown's words be "taken down," or removed from the debate's permanent record.
The House's presiding officer, Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ruled that Brown's words violated a House rule.
"Members should not accuse other members of committing a crime such as, quote, stealing, end quote, an election," Thornberry said.
When Brown objected to his ruling, the Republican-run House voted 219-187 along party lines to strike her words.
The AP story probably should have said "strict" party lines, as can be seen from the Roll Call. According to Congressional Record page H5866, some even changed their initial vote, in order to make the vote come out to be along strict party lines:
Mr. BISHOP of New York and Mr. LIPINSKI changed their vote from ‘‘aye’’ to ‘‘no.’’
Messrs. PICKERING, LEWIS of California, THOMAS, and BURR changed their vote from ‘‘no’’ to ‘‘aye.’’
It's evidently more important in the U.S. House to foster bitter partisanship than to host open debate about free elections.
See the Nov. 2, 2002 UnderReported.com story 91,000 wrongly disenfranchised in Florida in 2000 http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=375-- still barred from voting in 2002.
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