Us presidential election 2004

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Holy sh...!  

The official georgebush.com site has been blocked for europeans, australians, africans and asians. due to security reasons

Oh boy... these republicans are realy getting paranoid

[theavonlady 2]

How about "gross incompetence in keeping tracks of the amount of explosives in the country"?

You mean as in the UN's IAEA?

Quote[/b] ]Discrepancy Found in Explosives AmountsDocuments Show Iraqis May Be Overstating Amount of Missing Material

Oct. 27, 2004 — Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.

The Iraqi interim government has told the United States and international weapons inspectors that 377 tons of conventional explosives are missing from the Al-Qaqaa installation, which was supposed to be under U.S. military control.

But International Atomic Energy Agency documents obtained by ABC News and first reported on "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" indicate the amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis reported.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing — presumably stolen due to a lack of security — was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over three tons of RDX were stored at the facility — a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

The IAEA documents could mean that 138 tons of explosives were removed from the facility long before the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in March 2003.

The missing explosives have become an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John Kerry has pointed to the disappearance as evidence of the Bush administration's poor handling of the war. The Bush camp has responded that more than a thousand times that amount of explosives or munitions have been recovered or destroyed in Iraq.

Another Concern

The IAEA documents from January 2003 found no discrepancy in the amount of the more dangerous HMX explosives thought to be stored at Al-Qaqaa, but they do raise another disturbing possibility.

The documents show IAEA inspectors looked at nine bunkers containing more than 194 tons of HMX at the facility. Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted.

ABC News' Martha Raddatz filed this report for "World News Tonight." Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Now we're down to 3 tons and useless UN warehouse seals.

And all this nonsense started courtesy of CBS and the NY Times:

Quote[/b] ].........

Keller said “60 Minutes†executives asked the newspaper to hold the story until this Sunday so they could report it the same day, and “we said we weren’t comfortable doing that because it wouldn’t give the White House a fair opportunity to respond.â€

..........

CBS? Move on! I'd rather not bring that up again.

[Acecombat 0]

OMG Albert thats a tradegy , what will all those poor Bush/Cheney supporters from over seas do .. , wait aminute there arent many of those from over seas are they

[denoir 0]

How about "gross incompetence in keeping tracks of the amount of explosives in the country"?

You mean as in the UN's IAEA?

How do you figure? It was the Iraqis giving the figures of missing weapons.

As for the seals, that's just speculation without any evidence to back it up.

As for it being just three tons, tell it to the people getting blown up by the IED's that use max a couple of kg of such explosives.

Quote[/b] ]And all this nonsense started courtesy of CBS and the NY Times:

If you by "nonsense" mean that it is politically motivated, then absolutely. This happened some 18 months ago and is suddenly brought up now.

That does not however lessen the issue of sloppy control over Iraqi facilities that has taken place. Most disturbing is of course the disappearence of the nuclear material that was under IAEA seal and left completely unguarded.

[billybob2002 0]

Intel officer passed some info:

http://www.fivehundredwords.com/multimedia/index.htm

[Colossus 2]

Holy sh...!  

The official georgebush.com site has been blocked for europeans, australians, africans and asians. due to security reasons

Oh boy... these republicans are realy getting paranoid

[mg]http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,402977,00.jpg[/img]

[mg]http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,402975,00.jpg[/img]

Hint to all europeans, asians, middle-east people, africans, south americans... and canadians, who wish to see georgewbush.com (or other useless pro-bush junk sites )

Behold, the <span style='font-size:13pt;line-height:100%'>Proxy.Guardster!!</span>

Makes you invisible for the nasty americans  

Already got the solution  

But it take more time then it would be normal.

Added: This should do too

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

asshxxole! I am never first with the news. But during a week full of work you cant expect me to post news at 2am!

[billybob2002 0]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm....ampaign

Quote[/b] ]

Student Get-Out-The-Vote Drive Halted

1 hour, 17 minutes ago

MILWAUKEE - The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization.

Superintendent William Andrekopoulos acted late Wednesday, citing a policy that prohibits the district from being a political advocate.

His decision came a day after Republicans accused Democrats of using the students for political gain because the program was organized by the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, whose parent organization endorsed Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) for president.

Students at 33 Milwaukee schools called voters and went door to door in minority neighborhoods and areas with historically low voter turnout, urging people to cast ballots in Tuesday's election. The young people, ranging in age from 11 to 18, often conducted the efforts during school hours.

"There were too many variables associated with canvassing for the district to manage," district spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said. "The administration felt it had to take action to avoid the appearance of any impropriety."

Supporters said the youngsters were getting a valuable lesson in democracy and denied any partisanship, insisting the students did not wear political buttons or clothing and did not encourage people to vote one way or another.

"The students are bearing the brunt of a decision based on political pressure that is being brought on the district," said Larry Marx, co-executive director of Wisconsin Citizen Action. "This is a project that the district should be proud of."

But Chris Lato, communications director for the Wisconsin Republican Party, said the program amounted to "exploiting schoolchildren on the taxpayers' dime to conduct what is clearly a Democratic, partisan get-out-the-vote effort."

Why did they even link up with that group?

Anyway, on the university front, majority (90%) of school staff (including the president) who donated money to a campaign were for democrats.

[Blake 0]

Big surprise majority of students are pro-democrats...

[EiZei 0]

Judging by the latest campaign ad Bush is going to solve the Iraq problem by cloning. I thought they were against that?

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]Big surprise majority of students are pro-democrats...

Draft! Draft! Draft! Draft! Draft! Sucka by Kerry! Sucka by Kerry! Sucka by Kerry!

Also, those students were suppose to wear any political clothing...

[Colossus 2]

Big surprise majority of students are pro-democrats...

So am I...NOT.

[mg]http://magneticmirror.com/whatever-med.jpg[/img]

Judging by the latest campaign ad Bush is going to solve the Iraq problem by cloning. I thought they were against that?  

One extra thing not to vote on Bush, billybob2002  

Can we sum up what Bush have gone good and bad?

I know that the unemployment it higher then before, economy is worse and the amount of poor once is higher.

The only good thing I see in this rule is that Saddam is gone and that Afghanistan is liberated from Taliban.

[Colossus 2]

Quote[/b] ]<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Florida ballot papers go missing</span>

Tens of thousands of postal ballots have gone missing in

the US state of Florida, sparking fresh concern over

irregularities in the poll campaign.

Authorities are investigating the apparent loss of 58,000

absentee forms in Broward County, north of Miami.

Florida was the centre of controversies which delayed the

result in 2000, with George W Bush the eventual winner.

With five days until the poll, the presidential candidates are

focusing their campaigns in crucial states.

The BBC's Rob Watson in Washington says Ohio,

Pennsylvania, and Florida are seen as the most important of

the 11 swing states - where either President Bush or

Democratic challenger John Kerry could win.

The states are the most populous and therefore have the

most electoral college votes, our correspondent notes.

The accepted wisdom is that whoever wins two out of those

three states will win the election - and the latest opinion

polls suggest all three are still fairly close, our correspondent

adds.

'No blame game'

The missing ballots have fuelled an atmosphere of intense

suspicion in Florida, with Democrats already backing nine

separate lawsuits in the state, says the BBC's Justin Webb in

Washington.

If the outcome is close and decides the result in the

presidential race - and both of those eventualities are

perfectly possible - it seems virtually certain that protracted

legal battles will follow, our correspondent says.

Electoral officials in Broward County say they will send more

ballots after being overwhelmed by calls from would-be

voters, unable to get to the polls, who fear that their votes

have been stolen.

A police investigation into the missing ballots has not

uncovered any indication of criminal wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the US postal service inspectorate said it was

highly unlikely that 58,000 pieces of mail had just

disappeared.

A spokesman said inspectors were trying to establish whether

the ballots were ever delivered to the postal service.

Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes said the

situation "isn't a blame game".

"What we're concentrating on is getting the ballots to the

voter," she told the Miami Herald newspaper.

Lawsuits

Campaigners are working to ensure that no-one loses the

right to vote because of the missing ballots.

Democratic Party legislators have called on the electoral

authorities to publish newspaper ads telling people of other

options for voting.

They also accused the Republican-dominated state

government of dirty tricks.

Governor Jeb Bush - the brother of the incumbent president -

has rejected suggestions of bias.

In 2000, Broward gave Al Gore his biggest margin among

Florida counties. He won 67% of the vote there, while losing

the state to George W Bush by 537 votes.

"It looks like they're trying to steal the vote again," said

Diane Glasser, vice-chairwoman of the Florida Democratic

Party.

Both the Democrats and Republicans have already begun filing

lawsuits in states across the US, challenging different

aspects of the election process.

Allegations of intimidation

Voting rights activists in Florida say the state could also face

acute problems with vote-counting and the process of

casting ballots in next week's election.

Early voting, which has been going on for more than a week,

shows that new electronic voting machine technology is

much slower than the old punch-card method, the BBC's

Daniel Lak reports from Miami.

A high turnout could mean huge delays, our correspondent

says.

Other concerns include accusations of voter intimidation by

party representatives outside polling stations during the early

voting.

BBC News

I wonder why I didn't find this on CNN.com  

[Acecombat 0]

And who gave 2 craps about either Saddam or Taliban or Laden , there are plenty more from where they came from.

[ogre_h 0]

With friends like these...

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041028-122637-6257r.htm

It might even make a cool OFP mission. Move the explosives, bribe the guards and get it all done before the coalition shows up.

[ogre_h 0]

This is just fun

http://homepage.mac.com/napoleo....ink.WMV

[Akira 0]

This will go in both Iraq and here:

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into how the contracts to Haliburton were awarded. A whistle-blower has alleged favortism and blatant breaking of contract award rules.

[Acecombat 0]

A nice article:

Quote[/b] ]Deadlocked Democracy: What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do?

H.W. Brands, Los Angeles Times

During the 20 years I’ve taught American history, I’ve made a point of urging students to vote. If nothing else, I say, it gives you permission to complain at an unfavorable outcome. But these days I find it hard to make that case with conviction.

I happen to live in Texas, which George W. Bush will certainly carry by a large margin. For this reason, and because of the way the electoral college operates, I can’t honestly tell my students — Democrats or Republicans — that their votes might tip the balance. They won’t. (In fact, individual voters in all but the handful of battleground states might as well stay home too.)

Neither can I argue that my students’ votes might tip the balance in races for Congress. Computer-aided partisan redistricting has essentially guaranteed victory to the incumbent party in most districts. By the time of the general elections, the result is all but assured.

But I can tell my students about another period in American history, when democracy had reached a comparable deadlock and voters were similarly discouraged. And it just so happens that the deadlock began to break 100 years ago next month, when Americans for the first time elected a president committed to the principles of progressive reform.

If the political bosses had had their way, Theodore Roosevelt never would have gotten anywhere near the White House. When the Republican convention in 1900 nominated him for vice president on the ticket with William McKinley, GOP boss Mark Hanna grew apoplectic.

“Don’t any of you realize,’’ he spluttered, “that there’s only one life between that madman and the presidency?’’ And when McKinley’s assassin ended that one life, the bosses spluttered some more.

Progressivism in Roosevelt’s time took many forms — busting trusts, uplifting the poor, conserving America’s natural resources.

But at the heart of the progressive project was a belief that democracy had been hijacked by the political parties and the special interests. City governments had been corrupted by urban machines; the Senate was a “millionaires’ club’’; presidential nominations were controlled by the party bosses. Only an act of God — McKinley’s murder — let Roosevelt through.

“It is a dreadful thing to come into the presidency this way,’’ Roosevelt told a friend. “But it would be far worse to be morbid about it. Here is the task, and I have got to do it to the best of my ability.’’

Roosevelt’s task, and that of the other progressives, included campaigning to have the people, not state legislatures, elect US senators; establishing primaries for choosing presidential nominees; authorizing initiatives and referendums so that citizens might directly write laws; and granting women the vote.

The progressive agenda had the support of the people, as witnessed by Roosevelt’s 1904 election — by the largest popular margin in American history to that point — and by the 1912 and 1916 victories of progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Progressives succeeded in amending the US (and states’) constitutions — the 17th Amendment stipulated direct election of senators, the 19th guaranteed women the vote.

Our difficulties today don’t require anything as drastic as amending the US Constitution. The Constitution establishes the electoral college, but the states determine how the electors are chosen.

Most states follow the winner-take-all method that encourages the party nominees to ignore states in which one candidate or the other has a large lead. But Maine and Nebraska have formulas that allow them to split their electors among the candidates, and Colorado is considering it. Should other states do the same, the nation would be much closer to the democratic ideal of making each vote count.

Congressional redistricting is also up to the states; if the states charge independent commissions with drawing districts in party-neutral ways (as Iowa and Washington have done), congressional elections once again would mean something.

Such changes won’t come easily. But changes didn’t come easily in Roosevelt’s day, either. The bosses and moguls never accepted him, even after his overwhelming victory.

When Roosevelt took off on a post-presidential African safari, J.P. Morgan was said to have raised a glass and proposed a toast: “Health to the lions!’’

What Roosevelt and his fellow progressives counted on was the democratic conscience of America: the belief that the ordinary people — not political parties, not special interests — ought to govern. It was a powerful idea then, and it still is.

— H.W. Brands has written biographies of Roosevelt and Wilson; he teaches at Texas A&M University.

[ogre_h 0]

My Deutsch is for crap, but why are these guys endorsing W?

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO....sh.html

[Akira 0]

My Deutsch is for crap, but why are these guys endorsing W?

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO....sh.html

I get what I assume is a page not found from that link (in german).

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

OMG Albert thats a tradegy , what will all those poor Bush/Cheney supporters from over seas do ..    , wait aminute there arent many of those from over seas are they  

Sure there are many americans here voting for bush. We even have a republican representative in Berlin. Dont forget that the majority of army personal votes for him!

[Acecombat 0]

OMG Albert thats a tradegy , what will all those poor Bush/Cheney supporters from over seas do ..    , wait aminute there arent many of those from over seas are they  

Sure there are many americans here voting for bush. We even have a republican representative in Berlin. Dont forget that the majority of army personal votes for him!

I doubt it if the number of Bush voters is high in Germany among american civilians ... go through that wincustomize.com poll i pasted here it showed a 75-25% lead of overseas people favouring kerry against bush. It isnt ofcourse the only and unbiased poll but it should give us an inkling of whats afoot.

Why do they military folks keep voting Bush? Thats beyond me now , they like getting themselves shoved in to useless wars and get killed? Is it the US army or the AQ army were talkin about here anyway

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

They certainly dont like to get themselves killed. But I guess each voter has his own reasons to vote for Kerry/Bush. Maybe because Bush is rather expected to support military investments

[der bastler 0]

My Deutsch is for crap, but why are these guys endorsing W?

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO....sh.html

Because Bild is a "newspaper" of pure agitation. I wrote "newspaper" because imo appropriate names can't be called in these forums without risking PR or PB.

You can't even use this "newspaper" as toilet paper because it's soaked with red and black ink to display big big headlines --you would only paint your backside...

[Schoeler 0]

Why do they military folks keep voting Bush? Thats beyond me now , they like getting themselves shoved in to useless wars and get killed? Is it the US army or the AQ army were talkin about here anyway    

They vote for Bush because as my friends in the Army, Navy and Marines tell me, the only media source they have for information is Fox News, and only specific programs. For Radio, they only get Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The Pro-Bush propaganda machine is in full effect for our servicemen and women.

Despite this, I heard a sizable percentage of the enlisted personnel population is Pro-Kerry.