"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."
-- Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian archbishop.

"In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew."
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me -- and by that time no one was left to speak up."
--Pastor Martin Niemoller.

... mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
--Declaration of Independence

When you've got something good, you don't have to force it on people. They will steal it.
--Dick Gregory

Questions

Who is looking at the whole picture? Who is looking only at a detail that favors himself? Who is looking the other way?
Who is speaking for others, and why? Who is silent, and why?
Who is paying? Who is getting paid?
Are our natural resources being shared, or given to a private entity to be sold for a profit?
What are the long range foreseeable consequences of our decisions for short-term gain?

U.S. Constitution and other documents

Library of Congress
Educational Resource, US House of Representatives< /a>
Yale Law Library Documents
usconstitution.net
consource.org
earlyamerica.com
constitutionus.com

Privatization of Government

Pay to Play Is Washington's Sport of Kings, Truthout, 8/1/09.
article in plain text

Links

Let Freedom Ka-ching, Colbert Nation, Sept. 15, 2009

Why we must protect insurance executives, humor.

Bloomberg Keeps His Billions Separate From His Mayoral Obligations? Yeah, Right!, Village Voice, Sept. 1, 2009. By Wayne Barrett

A Party Is Not a Movement, Huffington Post, Sept. 5, 2009. By David Sirota.

Living in a Culture of Cruelty: Democracy as Spectacle, Truthout, Sept. 2, 2009. By Henry A. Giroux.

Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells, New York Times, Sept. 18, 2009.

Vaccine for Swine Flu Is Ahead of Expectations, New York Times, Sept. 19, 2009. After a massive publicity campaign to convince everyone that swine flu is a huge threat and only the vaccines can save us, are we surprised that the vaccines are ready? Tested no, necessary no, safe no, but ready to be sold yes.

Lehman's Last Contribution to Society: A Lesson on Social Insurance, New York Times, Sept. 11, 2009

75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S., Sept. 16, 2009

American Labor's Dark, Romantic Years, 1991. New York Times OpEd Classic by Thomas Geoghegan, author of "Which Side Are You On: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back."

Feds Shrugged As Subprime Crisis Spread, New York Times, 12/18/08.

Calvin and Hobbes explain the need for subsidies for business

Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption, New York Review of Books, Jan. 15, 2009.

Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction, Washington Post, Dec. 29, 2008.

Creeping Fascism: History's Lessons, By Ray McGovern, Dec. 27, 2007. "There are few things as odd as the calm, superior indifference with which I and those like me watched the beginnings of the Nazi revolution in Germany, as if from a box at the theater. ... Perhaps the only comparably odd thing is the way that now, years later...."

The End of America? Naomi Wolf Thinks It Could Happen, Don Hazen, Alternet, Nov. 21, 2007
Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You, Naomi Wolf, Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2007

The permanent Republican majority: Daughter of jailed governor sees White House hand in her father's fall, Larisa Alexandrovna, RawStory, Nov. 27, 2007

Even a Remote Chance?, Pokey Anderson, July 2006, on remote communications in voting systems.

Granny D: "Love is the only truth that can save us from lies and from anger and sad living", Wartburg speech, as delivered in Iowa - Doris "Granny D" Haddock, Nov. 2007

Debate moderators overlook key questions, MediaMatters.org, Nov. 17, 2007

Fired Attorneys Build Case Against Gonzales, By Jason Leopold, truthout Report, Nov. 16, 2007

Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse Updated The Election Center Wants To "Improve" Democracy - And The Profit Margins Of Their Corporate Sponsors. By Joyce McCloy, NC Coalition for Verified Voting, Jan. 15, 2006

Giuliani on YouTube

GovTrack.us, info on the 110th Congress

The Truth Behind "Lions for Lambs", Lisa Pease, Nov. 9, 2007

I'll have the Bilderberger, well done!, Jerry Mazza, Online Jouranl Associate Editor, Nov. 9, 2007

A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan, Naomi Wolf, Huffington Post, Nov. 4, 2007

TSA Gets Earful on Air Security Proposal Travel Management, Oct. 11, 2007

Biographical info on Saddam Hussein

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed Lamb contesting the vote!"
--Ben Franklin

Report: Thousands Wrongly on Terror List AP, Oct. 6, 2006.

Capitalism That Works For All Frances Moore Lapp, AlterNet. Posted June 23, 2006. In a region of northern Italy, the author of 'Diet For a Small Planet' discovered a cooperative approach to living that actually enhances human dignity.

Reform the System or Lose the Democracy by Molly Ivins, May 30, 2006

Standards for Secure, Transparent, Impartial, and Independently Audited Elections
Voters in many states have no way of knowing if the reported election outcome is legitimate. How does Oregon's election system measure up?

The Slow Death of Newspapers
For some reason, publishers assume people will want to buy more newspapers if they have less news in them and are less useful to people. By Molly Ivins, AlterNet, March 23, 2006.

Government Secrecy
OpenTheGovernment.org

Hey, Democrats, the Truth Matters!, By Robert Parry, Consortium News, May 11, 2006
How to Keep Democrats From Blowing the November Election, By Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers, May 9, 2006

Poll: 2004 Election Was Stolen; according to viewers of all news networks except Fox News, by Rob Kall, OpEdNews, May 11, 2006

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls, 5/11/2006, By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

Former Top Judge Says US risks Edging Near Dictatorship, about retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Guardian, March 13, 2006

Genetically Modified: New study shows unborn babies could be harmed, By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor, The Independent, Online Edition, January 8, 2006. Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a diet of modified soya. The World Trade Organization is expected in February to support a bid by the Bush administration to force European countries to accept GM foods.

Mike McCurry & the Hostile Takeover of the Democratic Party, by David Sirota, CommonDreams.org, April 25, 2006,

Capitalism Under Fire International Herald Tribune, March 30, 2006.

'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills' Guardian, March 29, 2006.

Bush Challenges Hundreds Of Laws Boston.com, Boston Globe, April 30, 2006.
Bush Interprets Law Any Way He Wants Boston.com, Boston Globe, March 24, 2006.
Group Sues To Block Budget Law That Never Passed House Mercury News, March 22, 2006.

Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs' By Nat Parry, Consortium News. Posted February 23, 2006. Is the Pentagon building U.S.-based prison camps for Muslim immigrants? Evidence points to the possibility.
Hotel U.S.A. By Joseph Richey, AlterNet. Posted on March 14, 2006. Part two of a two-part series on new immigration and detention centers in the US.

South Dakota Indian Tribe Will Open Abortion Business if Ban Becomes Law LifeNews, March 23, 2006.

Spies, Lies and Wiretaps New York Times, Jan. 29, 2006.

Restoring the Right to Vote for Felons New York Times, Jan. 10, 2006.

Justice Deputy Resisted Parts Of Spy Program New York Times, Jan. 1, 2006.

The Mugging of the American Dream By Bill Moyers, AlterNet June 6, 2005.

Selling Washington By Elizabeth Drew, June 23, 2005, The New York Review of Books. A synopsis of the depth of the political problem we face today.

Disasters waiting to happen -- bridges and levees Sept. 11, 2005

Revisiting the Biggest Story of Our Lives Jim Lampley, May 25, 2005, "More than two weeks have passed since I first established here that a mountain of evidence suggests the 2004 Presidential election was decisively tampered with and general media are doing nothing about it. Needless to say, the response, pro and con, was overwhelming."

FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals , by Miriam Raftery, RawStory, September 13, 2005.

Voter Confidence

Why is "voter confidence" considered a psychological phenomenon, unrelated to whether there is a basis for confidence?

Poll of technologists: 95% oppose paperless electronic voting. "...the Association for Computing Machinery, the largest professional organization of computer technologists, adopted a position against paperless electronic voting after an internal poll showed that 95 percent of their membership agreed with the position."

US Public Opinion toward Voting Technologies, Study by InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. published on March 1, 2004. 68% of Americans have high or moderate confidence in touchscreens, 32% don't trust them.
Problems with this kind of approach -- most Americans are ignorant about computer technology. The fact that they trust touchscreens doesn't make touchscreens trustworthy. This study is used by AAPD to prove that touchscreens are trustworthy. If one-third of voters don't trust a particular voting technology, that technology should not be used because it will suppress the vote.

Findlaw study: in September, 2004, 42% of Americans distrusted electronic voting.