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You can do better. It hasn't stopped politicians from beating John Ashcroft , who unlike Cheney, may be alive.

Let's keep a tally of sites with relevant information. Not sure if there's a bias in their reporting of news, but I've come to like Real Clear Politics as a way to keep track of the polls, etc.

Of course there's always non-US news sites like The Guardian and The Economist's articles regarding the election.

Breaking "news" also appears on Drudge Report. As far as blogs go, I don't really have any good ones. Any other ones you guys like?

Martin Rowson beat you to it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,105906 8,00.html

Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Apparently some missionaries also add that condoms come preinfected with the HIV virus.

I'm sure that you enjoy your faith, and more power to you. But ask yourself if you really want to have anything to do with an organization that, at it's highest levels, prefers to lie rather than admit their religious idealism is helping to subject millions to misery and death.

Link for proof that Kerry voted against first gulf war
link

Links proving we are still hunting Osama
link link link link

You call me insane? We are fighting Terrorism all over the world. We are trying to find Osama. We are destroying his terror network. I would say there's no disputing it, but people who don't like GWBs religious beliefs will argue anything no matter how crazy. Whose insane if you think you can't find any evidence that there are mass graves? Whose insane if you think terrorism didn't exist or doesn't exist in Iraq? Whose insane if you don't think fighting the war in Iraq doesn't help in the war on Terror? What rock have you been hiding under? Maybe its the CBS, CNN, NY Times, LA Times, ABC News, or USA Today rock. Hmm.. That can't be it.. I used some of those links in my proofs above.

Or perhaps, you live in one of the countries of our "allies" and have this information suppressed so you don't support this war.

Well said. I will offer a few things.

You are correct about Bin Laden and the Palestinians.

Regarding the claims of 100,000 Iraqis being killed, it is at best, very misleading, and at worst junk science. But hey, at least the Lancet editor rushed it through the peer review process to what... maybe effect the elections? That sort of thing helps shore up your confidence in the science.

Actually the Jihadists will not ultimately be satisfied with just an isolated United States. In their view even the United States must answer the demand of: Islam or death! Read Bin Laden's letter to America. In it you will see that his first actual demand is that the United States convert to Islam. His second demand, when fleshed out, is that we abandon the separation of church and state, impose Islamic Sharia law, and enforce its morality code, etc.. You have already touched upon the implications of that: death for any who commits adultery, death for homosexuals, no more drugs or alcohol, no immorality, pornography, etc. Bin Laden says that if we don't meet his demands, they will keep killing us. Just dropping support for Israel won't do it either. We have to become an Islamic nation under Sharia, or else.

The people that think we were attacked because we "stick our noses where they don't belong", or didn't sign this or that treaty are clueless about what this war is really about, and what it will take to keep us safe.

I don't know for sure the origin of the word "ricer", but the best guess is a racist one: the association of superficial modification with asian cars and/or car owners.

User 808140, you evidently have a moral problem with using words with racist origins even if modern use does not carry a racial connotation. You, and others in the moral hole that you've dug, will have to stop using the following:

"nitty-gritty" : 18th Century slave traders' phrase for the debris left at the bottom of a slave ship after a voyage.

"good egg" : This is linked to the slang expression 'egg and spoon' which rhymes with the highly derogatory name for black people, 'coon'.

"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe" : one ending to this saying dates from before the civil rights era.

See here and here.

There are many other examples, some made up (folk etymology - 'nitty-gritty' may be an example of this) but some real.

Don't get me wrong, if a racist story was accepted on slashdot or a story contained a racist term with no mitigating context (and I'm sure this has happened in the past), I'd support you completely. But there's no need to jump at shadows with "ricer = racism".

Is going to point out that according to the man himself, WE WERE ATTACKED BECAUSE OF OUR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL? (and note that he cited direct military support for Israeli policy)

Or shall we just continue to pretend this doesn't matter?

Regardless of what you think may about Israel, you have to admit that this makes a helluvalot more sense than "they hate our freedom."

Try reading Bin Laden's letter to America. He states a number of demands and says that if we don't comply, they will keep attacking, trying to kill us. It turns out that yes, he really does hate our freedoms. Just the first two demands make it impossible for there to be peace between us as long as we both live and hold to our philosophies.

His very first demand is that we become Muslims. (That sounds like it violates our freedom of religion, no?)

His second demand is that we stop what he refers to our "oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery". As he fleshes it out it turns out that he wants the separation of church and state abolished, the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, the end of adultery, homosexuality, immorality, charging interest in loans, no more drugs and alcohol, and other demands. You should be clear, the implication is: kill adulterers, homosexuals, etc. My thinking is that there are more than a few issues with a variety of rights in those demands.

As a side note: Bin Laden singles out President Clinton's lack of punishment as an infamy which will tarnish America's name in history. I don't think that there is any doubt that Bin Laden thinks President Clinton should have been stoned to death in accordance with Islamic law instead of the gentleman's agreement in which he surrendered his law license.

Sadly, there are far too many Muslims who do not want to simply work out a few philosophical differences with the Israelis, they want to kill them, all of them if possible. What makes it especially troubling is that Araft turned down a peace for land deal in which they could have had about 98% of what they wanted. It is likely that real peace won't be possible until Araft has passed on.

Bin Laden came very late to the Palestinian cause. They became an issue for him when it was politically expedient. He is still using them, and taking in the gullible.

(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

Comment: We all covert to Islam - or else.

(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

Comment: No more fornication, homosexuality, alcohol, gambling, or charging interest on loans, under penalty of Islamic law. (Adultery - death, homosexuality - death, ... )

(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?

Comment: The United States separates church and state, which is not acceptable to Bin Laden. Our laws are not Islamic Law, which is not acceptable.

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?

Comment: Bin Laden thinks not only did President Clinton get off too lightly (adultery is punishable by death under Islamic law.), but his lenient treatment makes us a beacon of evil for history.

If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation. The Nation of Monotheism, that puts complete trust on Allah and fears none other than Him. The Nation which is addressed by its Quran with the words: "Do you fear them? Allah has more right that you should fear Him if you are believers. Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of believing people. And remove the anger of their (believers') hearts. Allah accepts the repentance of whom He wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." [Quran9:13-1]

Comment: In closing, Bin Laden threatens continued war unless we comply with his demands. So, who will be the first new Muslim here? Anybody?

Now there are, of course, other demands that he has. But you should be clear, it is Bin Laden that is the Imperialist, his goal is to impose an Islamic theocracy upon the entire world, to revive the glory days of Islam and expand upon it.

Ultimately the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is just a side show, and a smoke screen for him. Bin Laden came very late to concern for the Pal

The portion released seems to contain a backhanded but solid endorsement for John Kerry. So one is immediately reminded of the responses reported by The Guardian to its Operation Clark County letter-writing campaign. Does Osama bin Laden read the newspapers, or does he merely depend on directions from his god? And now the editorial staff at LeMonde (obviously not reading English papers, probably also godless) have delivered the French kiss of death to Kerry's hopes.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, in claiming responsibility for the Madrid train bombing, went for the other candidate:

"A word for the foolish Bush. We are very keen that you do not lose in the forthcoming elections as we know very well that any big attack can bring down your government and this is what we do not want.

"We cannot get anyone who is more foolish than you, who deals with matters with force instead of wisdom and diplomacy.

"Your stupidity and religious extremism is what we want as our people will not awaken from their deep sleep except when there is an enemy.

"Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilisation.

"Because of this we desire you [Bush] to be elected."

But that was written way back in March, long before Operation Clark County, and by a group only loosly associated with bin Laden. I think that the more recent bin Laden effort is rather more cleverly designed.

we rely on Pakistan's army

Your leader is such a pathetic, drunk-driving, anti-diplomatic weakling that you have to rely on an army that obviously cares more about sheltering bin Laden than bringing him to justice. You got what you deserved when you voted four years ago.

Look back in January, the Army War College said, "The war against Iraq was not integral to the war on terror, but rather a detour from it." The same is true today.

your link mentions nothing about predator drones

The fact that the Pentagon pulled the fighting force most equipped for hunting down Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan in March 2002 in order to pre-position it for Iraq cannot be denied.

Fifth Group Special Forces were a rare breed in the US military: they spoke Arabic, Pastun and Dari. They had been in Afghanistan for half a year, had developed a network of local sources and alliances, and believed that they were closing in on bin Laden.

Without warning, they were then given the task of tracking down Saddam. "We were going nuts on the ground about that decision," one of them recalls.

"In spite of the fact that it had taken five months to establish trust, suddenly there were two days to hand over to people who spoke no Dari, Pastun or Arabic, and had no rapport."

Along with the redeployment of human assets came a reallocation of sophisticated hardware. The US air force has only two specially-equipped RC135 U spy planes. They had successfully vectored in on al-Qaida leadership radio transmissions and cellphone calls, but they would no longer circle over the mountains of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Look at the midwest here during 1850's. MUCH more desertlike and much less water. And the earth took that area FROM less livable to more livable.

Sure it was. (I guess the Great Lakes don't qualify as "water.") Do you have any evidence to back up this assertion? Besides, didn't you say in another post that we only have 80 years of temperature data?

The natural forces are more destructive than most things we can make.

This is precisely why we need to be careful what we do to the climate.

VOLCANOES (1 spew=100 years of 'pollutants)

Wrong. Volcanoes contribute an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide compared to human activities.

The only thing more destructive than most of those are nuclear warheads.. And even 50 years cures most of those problems. Look at Bikini atoll.

The Bikinians are still trying to get the money to clean up their atoll. Like the carbon we're spewing into the atmosphere, the radioactive contamination didn't just go away.

The sahara was a wonderful wilderness. Now its sand. And LOTS of it. The "americans" sure as hell didnt do it. Nature CHANGES weather patters naturally. Whether it be good or bad for us, I dont know.

Nice logical fallacy. Past changes occurred independently of human activities; therefore nothing we do now will affect the climate.

The human race wont die out, but most will. Darn.

The extent of your compassion is quite touching. I'd rather avoid fighting an endless global war over dwindling resources if possible.

I want you to consider this situation very carefully:

You have two children, fred and tom. You make them a pie and set it on the table, then leave to take care of some buisness. Fred says they should share the pie. Tom asserts that he should have the whole pie. They get into a fight. When you get back into the room, you ask them what they're fighting about, and they both try to explain their situation. What do you do?

If you do the fair thing and say they should share the pie, Tom accuses you of always taking Fred's side. Taking an 'even handed' approach to this problem is the wrong thing to do; Tom is a prick and any attempt to see his point of view is pointless and stupid.

The same is true of the Israeli/Palenstinian conflict. What do you mean by 'an even handed approach?' It seems to me that saying there should be a palestinian state and an israeli state peacefully coexisiting is reasonably even handed - and that's exactly what bush has called for. George W. Bush is the first american president to call for a two-state solution, and he's also the first american president to pressure the israelis to withdraw from occupied territories without an agreement from the palestinians - something the israelis just voted to do. Bin laden doesn't given a damn about that - in his mind, the israelis don't have a right to live, so the only 'fair' solution in his mind is to let all of the arab countries gang up on israel and wipe them off the face of the earth. He states this clearly in his letter to america:

The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.

Notice that he doesn't call for peacefull coexistence for israel, he calls for its outright destruction - so in his mind, if all of the arab countries in the middle east simultaneously invaded israel, if we did anyting to try and help the israelis out, we'd be acting unfairly.

If you think he doesn't hate us for our freedom, you really need to read the rest of the letter he wrote to the united states. He outlines just why he's making war on us. It's not just our 'support' for israel, it's our way of government:

You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.

It's right there - plain as day. Because we don't follow Islamic law and instead decided to craft our own constitution, we are evil. Read on:

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?

You mean to tell me that guy isn't nuts?

That said, I certaintly agree that he's not stupid. It's quite obvious what he's trying to do in this latest video - he knows he's getting his ass handed to him and he wants to call it quits. Notice that in his letter he warns that he's going to kick our asses, whereas in this lastest video he tell us that if we leave him alone, he'll leave us alone. Yeah. Right. He's purposely using the same sort of rhetoric bandied about by the leftists in this country in hopes of persuading americans that he's right. Consider the reaction of CryoFan to this same article - he says that Bin Laden Makes m

...and, despite what the powers-that-be would like you to believe, most were probably not organised by a certain Evil Genius lurking in a cave somewhere in central Asia, despite some superficial similarities in their respective declared aims.

In other news, The Lancet reckons there have been about 100,000 extra civilian deaths in Iraq since the war of 2003. Still, better them than us, right? Right?!

You're on the right track, but the numbers are far, far worse than most people can comprehend.

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

The Guardian recently had an outreach program to get UK readers to help educate voters about how the world percieves America, to give them some perspective that is missing from their weekly digest. Unfortunately the campaign was DDOS and filibustered out of existence by republicans spinning a "foreign interference" false call to arms, but while it was ongoing I felt it did useful work and contributed myself. I hope I get an answer!

You are talking about My fellow non-Americans, a large happening completely silenced by the US media, even by Slashdot. I have submitted the story about this happening to politics.slashdot.org twice, on 18 and 19 October 2004, and in fact I was not the only person who has done it, but, needless to say, it got rejected every single time, for some reason, even though there were nearly no new stories on politics.slashdot.org posted during those days. It is actually quite an interesting story, certainly worth reposting at least as a comment. Here is the first sory I posted:

My fellow non-Americans

"The result of the US election will affect the lives of millions around the world but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it -- until now," writes Guardian Unlimited, one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet, in the article entitled My fellow non-Americans. "In a unique experiment, [Guardian] has assembled a democratic toolkit to enable people from Basildon to Botswana to campaign in the presidential race. And with a little help from the folks in Clark County, Ohio, you might help decide who takes up residence in the White House next month."

In this article Oliver Burkeman thoroughly explains how non-Americans can have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the United States presidential election in 2004 by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. He also instructs how to give money and make your voice heard by contacting the US media. More can be read in the related articles, A brief guide to Clark County and Dear Clark County voter.

In the first three days after publishing My fellow non-Americans, more than 11,000 people requested addresses and due to a strong reaction of US readers Guardian Unlimited has received many voices of protest.

According to Wikipedia, Ohio is a swing state. "The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presense of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections and, therefore, very important to the campaigns of both major parties."

Guardian Unlimited is an on-line version of the British newspaper The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics.

Unfortunately, it got rej

Hopefully, he'll make it a permanent one.

Maybe the same as every other mainstream American media outlet, but there is a hell of lot of news they don't report on.

You mean Fox doesn't report on Selby miners or teenage murderes? Wow, what a surprise, a US news agency reporting primarily on US-centric news. I did check the headlines of numerous European newspapers online and, from my limited language skills, determined they all seem to be reporting on the same things as Fox News...Arafat, Iraq, and the US Election.

I won't deny that they, and most every other commercial and non-commercial news agency, are politically slanted. But to suggest that they ignore, rather than just spin, the news according to their biases is foolish.

It's a spectacular display of stupidity on someone's part given that:

"Democrats and Republicans alike see gold in both the civilian and military camps."
Guardian

I'm posting from a cybercafe in Bangkok and still can't see the Bush site. It's OK though because I'm already set on Kerry. If you're still not sure who you're voting for consider that the Republicans will almost certainly retain control of Congress (legislative brance), Seven out of nine of the current Sup ream Court justices were appointed by Republican Presidents, and the majority of State Governors are Republican.

So, with the next President certainly appointing at least one Supreme Court Justice, there would be very little in the way of checking pure Republican power.

A little balance is a good thing, yes?

1) Who said anything about Gay Sex?

2) "It's not like the Pentagon ordered people to be "tortured" in Abu Gharib". My experience differed.

3) I wasn't comparing Bush to bin Laden. I was comparing Bush's moral certainty to bin Laden's. Ever since I saw Bush when he returned to the White House on September 11th and said "this is a Crusade", I've believed that his moral certainty could be his undoing.

I was behind him though, until he invaded Iraq. I knew it was a mistake to 'go it alone' (which is what we, the UK, Australia and Poland did essentially -- don't say "You forgot Poland!") with Rumsfeld's War on the Cheap. Alone we open ourselves up to charges of "War for Oil", which, given the fact that the President and Vice President are both from the Oil Industry, is a reasonable charge. The growing violence in Iraq makes it clear that Muslim extremists think we're occupiers. Another charge that's hard to refute given our Firing of Jay Garner. In other words, if we had elections in late 2003, we'd be home by now.

4) You think I'm Michael Moore? Strange, I don't think you're Anne Coulter. Don't you think they're too busy bar-b-queuing babies to post on slashdot??

You might want to stop demonizing people and see that people who don't agree with you aren't 'hippies' or 'filmmakers'. They're just people who love their country and have different ideas. If we listen to each other, we both might learn something.

Reading your linked article, I think that the reason the reporters might be biased against Israel might be due to Israel's recent performance, but that might be just me. There are plenty of other examples of similar behavior (shooting of UK civilian by sniper, shootings of palestinian children by snipers, the Israeli tank that fired two tank shells into a group of unarmed civilians), but I can't be bothered to dig for specific articles. You might also note the following article.

Reading your linked article, I think that the reason the reporters might be biased against Israel might be due to Israel's recent performance, but that might be just me. There are plenty of other examples of similar behavior (shooting of UK civilian by sniper, shootings of palestinian children by snipers, the Israeli tank that fired two tank shells into a group of unarmed civilians), but I can't be bothered to dig for specific articles. You might also note the following article.

Sorry but that's not ironic. You would expect that if any unknown backdoors existed in a closed-source application that they would be found when the source was opened -- that's just common sense. Irony is hard to describe but typically applies when something unexpected happens.

This is neither funny nor insightful.
This is simply flamebait.
Here's the proof
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,95 4018,00.html

No, but you sure can blame Bush for the failed coup in Venezuela on April 11th, 2002. The motive seems to have been the same as the one in Iran.

American policy should, and is, made in order to benefit Americans firstly, and others as a secondary benefit. If we can manage to benefit the Iraqi people (by replacing a violent dictator with a mostly democratic republic) while defending our interests, all the better, but there is a definite ordering of the priorities.

What do you think is going on in Iraq right now? What do you think people are rebelling for - fun? They're rebelling for stuff like this: [Cite]

To quote directly from the article:

About 20m ahead of me, I could see the American Bradley armoured vehicle, a huge monster with fire rising from within. It stood alone, its doors open, burning. I stopped, took a couple of photos and crossed the street towards a bunch of people.

So, in other words, the American soldiers were responding to an attack and defending themselves.

If you believe the polls in Iraq, the majority of Iraqis (even when you include the pro-US Kurds) want the US to just leave.

And as I previously stated, their opinion is not being taken into account, nor should it.

Secondly, you attribute the violence to people who want an islamic theocracy. Pray tell, where did you come across this insight into the motives of diverse resistance groups across Iraq?

I don't attribute all of the violence to groups who want an Ismamic theocracy; there are still some of the old Baathists around too.

... random "No Blood for Oil" rantings, operating under the false assumption that we are over there merely to steal a few barrels of crude ...

Their "government" was millions of people. One of Bremer's admitted biggest mistakes was kicking all baathists out of public office (which he later rescinded), because even under Saddam, the government was still just people doing their jobs, apart from a relatively small number with blood on their hands.

The Baathists were "Just doing their jobs": what a wonderful excuse. Do you also apply this low standard to Private Lynndie England and her friends? Or only to non-Americans?

> their hospitals were even more shortly
> supplied, and their doctors lacked the freedom
> to leave the country.

Wrong.
[Cite]

To quote the second article you mentioned:

"I am afraid to ride to work in my car," she said, because of recent robberies, rapes, kidnappings and murders.

And then your last paragraph:

Oh, they certainly seem to be showing will. Power? That's arguable. They're certainly militarily weaker than the US, but they've been doing quite impressively nonetheless via the force multiplier of guerella warfare. And despite all of the innocents caught in the crossfire, polls show that those who are resisting have more popular support than us, the occupiers.

So these are your freedom fighters in Iraq? Do you want these people running the show over there? When your freedom fighters bomb a civilian location, that is merely acceptable "innocents caught in the crossfire", but when an American military vehicle is torched, and some civilians who where stupid enough to run towards the explosion instead of away get killed in retaliatory fire, that isn't?

No, it was not Korea, if you meant this survey. Why should Koreans support bush when they had to reluctantly send troops to Iraq out of the fear that US might otherwise do some wrong to them?

Here is another 101 things to ponder.

OT discussion follows: My first reaction was, what a stupid idea -- all it takes is one faked entry on the list to turn it into a great weapon against whoever you hate today. Then I remembered Artists Against 419 and its many clones. Funny how I'm willing to trust one but not the other...

the Guardian to encourage its UK readers, i.e., not US citizens, to start a letter writing and email campaign to Ohioans encouraging them to vote for John Kerry

a unique scheme to match individual Guardian readers to individual American voters, giving you the opportunity to write a personal letter, citizen to citizen, explaining why this election matters to you, and which issues you think ought to matter to the US electorate. It may even be a chance to persuade somebody to use their vote at all.

Charlie Brooker described Bush in scathing terms, and concluded: "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr., where are you now that we need you?"

There are no votes in Leipzig

And most expats will vote for John Kerry anyway

Yahoo! cleared in Nazi case (Wednesday February 12, 2003)
Then in a separate legal attack, three different French Jewish groups launched a second action, accusing Yahoo!'s former president Tim Koogle of justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court ruled yesterday that justifying war crimes meant glorifying, praising, or at least presenting the crimes in question favourably, and that Yahoo! manifestly did not fit that description.

US court overturns Yahoo Nazi memorabilia ruling (Thursday, August 26, 2004)
A United States appeals court has ruled that a lower tribunal had no right to decide on a case brought against US Internet giant Yahoo by two French groups trying to halt online sales of Nazi memorabilia.
...
Yahoo must wait for LICRA and UEJF to come to the United States to enforce the French judgment before it is able to raise its First Amendment claim. However it was not wrongful of the French organisations to place Yahoo in this position, wrote Judge Warren Ferguson.

Yahoo's legal battle over Nazi items continues (Thursday, 26 August, 2004)
At stake is Yahoo's claim that enforcement of the French court's judgment in the US violates Yahoo's First Amendment rights. This claim can be reviewed by any US court able to assert jurisdiction over French plaintiffs the UEJF and LICRA, he wrote. Jurisdiction can be obtained if LICRA and the UEJF ask a US district court to enforce the French judgment, but they have not yet done so, Ferguson wrote.

By some of the logic I see here, the Internet should operate according to the lowest common denominator of law - if it's legal *somewhere* it should be legal on everywhere the Internet. I just don't see how There should be no restrictions on international trade over the Internet + All software should be free can be reconciled with People in India shouldn't be allowed to do my job.

Attack ad version of this post: MarkTAW says if it's legal *somewhere* it should be legal on everywhere. Is this the kind of man you want posting to /. ?

I think you misunderstand me. The point of my argument was not whether or not embryonic stem cell research is wrong. It was to simply say that belief one way or the other does not necessarily make one not a Christian.

Ah. I see where you're coming from now. I think that's fair. I happen to disagree, but there's logic in your words. What you're basically saying is that you believe that ensoulment happens at uteral implantation, rather than conception.

I disagree, but I can respect your viewpoint.

I believe that saying that conception that doesn't involve a womb isn't "conception" per se is splitting hairs a bit too finely. Considering the value that Christ, God, and Holy Spirit place on Life, I find it hard to believe that They would make that distinction. To me, it sounds too much like the old argument that the black slaves in the American south were not "human," thus property laws could apply to them. Or the Aryans saying that only their genetic stock was "human." Considering how precious Life is, we have to err on the side of protecting it in all possible forms.

Here's an interesting intellectual game to play. I believe that sometime in the next ten years, scientists will produce an artificial womb. Some news sources say that this is very close to happening. That is, they will show that it's possible to take sperm and egg, conceive a zygote, and bring it to term without ever emplanting it in a woman's womb. Would a child "born" from such technology be human? Would it have Life?

Obviously such a situation would be rather rare, but our answer helps shed light more precisely on our thoughts on the matter.

I agree with your post, and liked the wikipedia link although I'd like to mention a TV programme i saw last week called "The Power of Nightmares", which is shown on BBC2 on british tv, but may not make it make to the US, which was about the politics of fear beeing used to manipulate people. It was mostly concerned with the ideas of Leo Strauss as being behind neo-conservative thinking. Those ideas are extremely machiavellian and suggest that the way to prevent the moral collapse of 50's america into increasing nihlism was to focus on an external threat, and to give the American people a higher mission. The higher mission he suggested was to spread democracy and values of freedom and liberty to the evil places in the world (everywhere else), while the political elite didn't need to believe the FUD. In the 1970's Donald Rumsfeld (a student of Strauss) started to accuse the USSR of a massive arms build up, despite no evidence to support this theory, on the basis that they were evil, and therefore that is what they MUST be doing. They then set up a group called Team B to review existing CIA intelligence, with the addition of a belief that the USSR was incapable of not building up its weapons for an attack on the west. This it did, and in the absence of evidence of the new weapons they took the belief that the USSR must be doing something and decided that the new weapons must be so advanced that they simply could not be detected. In 1976 a new group called The Committee on the Present Danger published the results of that report in a alarming video to reignite the cold war at a time when relations were slowly improving. They claimed that they were simply highlighting the dangers of totalitarianism, but in reality they were spreading FUD in order to control the liberal drift of America.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, what the programme will suggest is that the threat of Al Qaeda is vastly overblown, and that it doesn't really exist as a global terrorist network in quite the way as it is often portrayed. Connections between various terrorist cells are ad-hoc most of the time and Osama bin Laden isn't really the mastermind behind attacks so much as a figurehead or spiritual leader. It all suits the power hungry elite nicely though. They can instill fear into the plebs and get support for their totalitarian crack down on civil liberties all in the name of fighting the very thing which gives them the power in the first place.

Just think, who benefits from the fear of terrorism? If Bush gets re-elected on an anti-terror platform, then he does, and so does Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, all three of whom are former students of Leo Strauss.

cui bono. To whom the good?

1. the legal principle that the responsibility for a certain act is likely to lie with one who had something to gain as a result of that act.

Recommended reading: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/PDF/Commonwealth. pdf and http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/08/far04029.ht ml

There is a common reason behind the recent major changes in US foreign policy and internal politics, and none of the comments so far have pointed it out.

We are becoming a police state and finding (or even creating) excuses to project military power in the Middle East in preparation for, basically, Doomsday.

So much of our economy is dependent on oil production, not only for energy, but for agricultural fertilizer and countless consumer and industrial goods as well.

We've all heard that petroleum reserves will be depleted by about 2040. But most haven't considered that oil production is predicted to peak in 2007. After about 2007 one can only assume there will be increasingly hostile international competition for dwindling oil production.

Add to the 2007 peaking in oil production the following looming crises:

1. Global warming. If the jump in the rate of increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 seen in the last two years maintains, action will have to be taken within decades or less to insure a run-away greenhouse effect is avoided.

2. Decreasing production from farms, the fact fertilizers used in commercial farming are made from petroleum, and the peaking of oil production in 2007. Add to this exponential population growth. Studies have predicted the world can only sustain a population of about 2.5 billion given current technologies.

A life and death struggle between 6 billion for resources that can only support about 2.5 billion is a recipe for a global conflagration that will make the previous world wars look like minor skrimishes.

That is why the US continues to spend for defense at Cold War levels even though the world is currently at peace. I think the increase in power of right-wing fundamentalist christianity in US society can be fit to this theory as well.

What doesn't fit (I admit!) is the current administrations refusal to take global warming seriously, rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, and insufficient leadership in developing alternative energy sources, especially nuclear. Maybe the Armageddon-fixated christian fundamentalists really have taken over. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/ story/0,14259,1204684,00.html

From the UK newspaper The Observer back in the summer..

Stay Calm Everyone!

Prozac, albeit tiny amounts, now exists in our rivers and groundwater.

Weakly backed observations and uninformed comments? You mean like these:

[Kerry]He simply makes bold faced lies to the jury, and even though they are objected... the jury still has to hear it.

He has turned the economy around, and that is irrefutible. If you argue with that you are a fool.

[Healthcare, Kerry's plan] It is too outlandish, and I really hope it never is passed. President Bush's plan is more realistic and addresses the root cause of the issue

President Bush is certainly not a perfect man

(Oh. You should tell him that sometime. He himself still thinks he's directly implementing God's will on earth.)

but he has held his position with integrity.

(so has Pol Pot. But I digress...)

Regardless of what Kerry says, I can tell you with the utmost confidence that John Kerry would have invaded Iraq if he were president during this past term, even without 9/11.

What? What twisted planet are you from?

In regards to terrorism, Bush did what was necessary, the public demanded it, as well as his moral conviction demanded it.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, then-vice president of Iraq, shortly before the invasion:

Why is it that the Americans must destroy the only secular regime in the Middle East, besides Syria? If Saddam Hussein falls, there will be chaos here, and these crazy Islamists and terrorist will triumph in the end.

Sounds prophetic, doesn't it? Bush is the best thing that has happened to islamic terrorism in a long time. His crusades are probably doing a better job a recruiting junior terrorists than Al-Quaida alone ever could. I'm sure Bin Laden is endorsing Bush's re-election all he can...

(more "observations")

This is just all ridiculous. The Democrats are total liars, and anyone who follows them is a complete fool.

Democrats tend to be selfish, or lazy, or have no one who relies on them.

The Democrats support every single issue that is questionable. They support gay/lesbain marriage (only positive for gay/lesbian community), they support stem cell research from embryos and abortion(only positive for feminists, and do not get me started on that).

On a certain meta-level I tend to agree with the person who modded you "Interesting". It is "interesting" indeed to watch one of those gung-ho Bush believers dismantle himself.

It is even geting better, American Contractors are not using Americans in case they die I suppose but it is perfectly alright to send Chilean mercenaries instead, probably the ones they trained under Pinochet's bloody regime.

For example: it has been estimated that several thousand civilians died in the first few days of the war (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/). You would think that this was a major tragedy and worth talking about. What was reported? Little. Where were the pictures of the effects of the war, the analysis?

Both NBCs Dan Rather http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,717097 ,00.html and NPR's Morning Edition host Bob Edwards http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030423.as p#3 have questioned the propaganda that they (the media) delivered to us. Dan Rather called it "patriotism run amok" and said that it was in danger of trampling freedom of the press.

Another example: why did the woman who photographed soldier's coffins returning lose her job? Because the war news is being controlled by spin doctors, not being reported in the sense that you and I think of reporting.

1. Thanks for the superfluous geography lecture. Note that I wrote about the climate in the UK and not the weather in London.

2. I never said the tap water in UK wasn't as good as it gets (Coca-cola have learned something about the quality of tap water), but drugs in the water is a legitimate concern. Even if the specific claims about prozac, for example, are truly unfounded, it's still right that consumers continue to demand the highest standards possible, especially when the industry is run by private corporations.

People are going to be extremely uptight about this, but this water will probably more pure than Dasani or Aquafina, since they are nothing more than filtered tap water.

And don't forget that Dasani even managed to start with London tap water and actually make it worse.

So, next time you're about to make a joke about water recycling, spare a thought for those of us not living in the British Isles, with its endless wet season ;)

OK, this is a little off-topic, but if you're a European who wants to get Kerry elected, I would suggest not sending unsolicited emails and telephone calls.

The UK Guardian tried that, and it doesn't seem to have been very successful. Have a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0, 13918,1332041,00.html.

New York Times reporter James Brooke was recently shocked, shocked to discover that the Japanese people's famous fascination with robots and automation stems from their "xenophobia." [Japan Seeks Robotic Help in Caring for the Aged Mar. 5, 2004 NYT ]

The labor-saving device that gave Brookes the willies was Sanyo's new clamshell-shaped automated bathing machine. It allows frail people confined to wheelchairs to roll in dirty and roll out clean and dry.

Shivered Brooke: "Futuristic images of elderly Japanese going through rinse and dry cycles in rows of washing machines may evoke chills."

Yet the machine doesn't seem to give the shivers to its users. Toshiko Shibahara, an 89-year-old resident of a Japanese nursing home told Brooke, "You don't get a chill. You feel always warm." Likewise, Kuni Kikuchi, an 88-year-old in a wheelchair, noted, "It automatically washes my body, so I am quite happy about it. These bubbles are good for the massage effect."

It's easy to imagine other advantages. A roll-in machine means that attendants don't have to manhandle the elders' wizened naked bodies into the tub, which must be a relief to all concerned. Greater automation means bathing times are less dependent on the staff's work schedules, which can be a blessing to old people struggling with incontinence. Finally, as this kind of technology progresses and becomes cheap enough, the elderly can stay in their own homes longer before finally being bundled off to nursing homes.

But the NYT can't be bothered with what a bunch of old ladies want, not when it has important brow-furrowing to do over the dark urges behind the Japanese drive to empower their elderly. Brookes writes:

"But [these bathing machines] also point to where the world's most rapidly aging nation is heading. Leaders of the Philippines and Thailand ... suggest a different route: granting work visas to tens of thousands of foreign nurses. But that is unlikely in a nation that ... in the last decade has issued about 50,000 work visas a year... Building on such xenophobia, Japan's nurses' unions successfully lobbied lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party in late February to block the admission of foreign doctors and nurses."

My question: doesn't the uniqueness of Japanese culture add to the diversity of the world?

And aren't we supposed to celebrate diversity?

Oh, excuse me, that's the wrong kind of diversity. We are supposed to celebrate the right kind of diversity--the kind where each country becomes so diverse in population, its culture so diluted by immigration, that all countries are eventually the same.

How silly of me to forget that the ultimate goal of "diversity" is global uniformity--and monotony.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Guardian

-jim