What's your vote worth?

If you want your vote to actually count as ONE vote in the next presidential election, move to Wyoming. Nice state, if you can stand the kind of red-necks that kill gay people by tying them to a fence and beating them to death. Seriously, I'm sure there's plenty of friendly people there. Hell, 60,421 people there actually voted for Gore (but they were probably beaten for it).

To find out exactly what your vote is worth compared to those more important people in Wyoming, check out this page where I've listed each state, its number of electors, the actual number of people who voted, the votes per elector, and the percentage of Wyoming's vote each state's voter counts as. It's not pretty. In California, my vote counted less than half a Wyoming vote. In Massachusetts, your vote counts just over a third of Wyoming's.

Anybody ready to abolish the electoral college yet? Of course you are! In fact, a majority of you probably are. Well, you know what good a majority does for you in this country. And don't expect the National Redneck Association (NRA) to ever let go of the lopsided power this colonial leftover gives them. Because they can't win an argment, or a court case, on gun control, they depend on this pre-slavery dilution of big state votes to put Juntas like Shrub's in power. The only argument I've ever heard for the electoral college is that candidates would ignore little states. Well, I can argue with that all day, but here's just one for now: candidates ignore states that are decided already. States like Wyoming aren't visited now, because the outcome is certain. Same for California. Bush and Gore spent most of their time in "battleground" or "swing" states. If we eliminated the college and just went for the popular vote (or, even if we just eliminated the two vote bonus based on each state's senators), candidates would go anywhere and everywhere that they might pick up a vote. It would actually force them to go more places!

Why am I wasting my time? This will never happen and democracy in this country is now forever lost thanks to the right-wing nuts who think it's OK to destroy the planet, since Jesus is coming back soon anyway.

"The president and his budget director are finally being honest about their misguided priorities — more tax cuts for Enron paid for by effectively raising taxes on middle-class students and their families," — David Sirota, a spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, commenting on the Bush administration's efforts to eliminate a student loan consolidation program that lowers payments.

There was a ton of Bad Bush News today, from EPA announcing they're going to let mining operations dump billions of tons of waste in rivers, that Bush rejected an EPA plan that would have reduced air pollution, instead of increasing it, which Clear Skies will do, the NRA (National Redneck Association) bragging that their red-neck drones in the midwest (where a vote counts more than in populous states) got Bush "elected," and an energy department release of a document (now that the "energy" bill has passed the Senate) that reveals a Bush staffer asked an industry representative for a wish list to be made into regulation (or the lack of it).

All you idiots who said this asshole couldn't do much damage: I hope you're paying attention now. Go back to your corner and stick your head back up your asses. And stay there until after we have a real election, where votes count, and I personally kick the asses of any pudgy little Republican congressional staffers who stage riots to stop vote counting.

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."—George Washington, 1790

"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?"—Ronald Reagan, 1980

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''—George W Bush, 2001

Watchdog quits EPA

Robert Martin was the EPA's ombudsman until he quit, in disgust with the Bush administration, on earthday, 2002. This man actually made a difference to people who were harmed by the big industries, and others, who pollute this planet. He butted heads with Bush political appointees in the EPA since they started showing up to "protect" the environment. Then, Martin stumbled onto Christie Whitman's corruption--helping her husband and his huge stake in Citigroup Corp.

In Denver the EPA had decided to leave radioactive contamination in the middle of a neighborhood, at the Shattuck Chemical Superfund site. After many complaints, they finally decided to remove the pollution, and the company that had to pay for the cleanup was Citigroup Corp. Martin discovered that Whitman, the EPA administrator, is married to a former officer of Citigroup who now manages roughly $800 million of the firm's investments. Whitman refused to recuse herself from the case. The EPA settled, allowing Citigroup to pay $10 million to get off the hook, while actual cleanup costs will be between $70 million and $100 million. Furthermore, while New Yorkers were suffering breathing problems and other maladies after the twin towers collapse, Whitman issued a statement assuring people that everything was fine, meaning Traveler's Insurance (owned by Citigroup) didn't have to pay any claims.

This is Environmental Protection? Read the whole story here.

Conservatives Aren't NORML

My letter to Andrew Sullivan: The nut case who sent you the e-mail in defense of our Marijuana laws spouted out a lot of facts about The Netherlands, but didn't back any of them up. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. For some well researched statistics, check out norml.org or the mpp.org. I was glad to see you were unconvinced. Let's use prohibition as an example: did prohibition stop, or even slow, drinking in this country? No. It did make the mafia stronger, just as prohibition of drugs has made the cartels stronger. But even that is off the point. No one would argue that coke and heroin are bad news, but there are plenty of arguments that pot is no worse, or even less worse, than alcohol or tobacco. And having John Ahscroft (your kind of conservative?) busting terminal cancer patients who are smoking pot for pain, in states that voted to let them do it, under a doctor's orders, well, let's see some right-wing nut defend that.

I could care less what your sexual orientation is. When it comes to politics, if you want to be in the same party as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and GW Bush for that matter, that's your stupid mistake to make. My contention is with your statement that somehow Republicans stand for "small government, a free society, market economics, and a strong defense." Certainly this doesn't apply to the idiot you "elected." In case you've been busy, the latest stories were about how Bush has increased spending more than any president since Johnson. Even if you take homeland defense out of it, what you have here is a deficit spender who says he wants smaller government while he doles out tax cuts and government projects to Enron. The blue dog Democrats seem to be the only ones who want a balanced budget and controlled spending. Bush only cares about re-election and he knows that pork is the ticket.

Furthermore, you seem to suggest that Democrats aren't for a "free society." What kind of logic is that? Only Republicans are for freedom? Give me a break. This is the typical crap a lot of you right-wingers spew: if anyone is against your policies they're somehow not patriotic. Please spare me. You and John Ahscroft can go sing some hymns about God and Freedom but that doesn't mean you're for a free society. To say that progressives aren't shows that you'd rather call us commies than debate us, Mr. McCarthy.

Finally, I wonder where you come down on your Religious fanatics' (Face it, how many atheist Republicans are there? The party has been taken over by Ralph "Enron" Reed and company) feelings about the environment. Are you with the James Watt theory that "We don't need to protect the environment; the second coming is at hand." This seems to be this born-again Jesus freak president's position. So, you'd have these guys destroy the world in the name of a "free market"? And, do you really think Bush is for a free market? Only when it helps the people who got him elected. This is the politics of money, and it is anything but free. Republicans are for the elite, and free markets, if they ever were truly free, or if they ever actually calculated the true costs and benefits of actions, would be the one thing Republicans couldn't stand.

Beyond all the philosophical discussions you and I could have on conservatives vs. progressives, the bottom line at the moment is that this drunk, AWOL coke-head in the White House was not elected. Have you read Greg Palast's Harper's article? The Katherine Harris scrub list contained 8000 names it shouldn't have in Florida, mostly of black people who were wrongly (feloniously) turned away from the polls, in some cases at gun point. Seems the only way your precious "conservative" could win an "election" is to have white state troopers in Florida point guns at black people trying to vote.

If they were pointing guns at gay people, I assume you'd still profess that they are the party of a "free society." Even while they're forcing my kids to pray in school, arresting you for sodomy, forcing abortions into back alleys with clothes hangers, cutting taxes for billionaires, sponsoring third world coups, bombing civilians in the middle east, giving money to terrorists while denouncing them, and executing innocent people?

Scott Supak
http://supak.com

The Selling of an Energy Policy

President Al Gore's Op/Ed piece in Sunday's New York Times offers little hope for the future, since it's about the Junta that is squatting in the White House and how their "energy" policy is sending us down the road to ruin. Remember, the Republicans are the party who brough you Interior Secretary James Watt who said: "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand." For a few quotes that actually make sense to those of us who use our brains, read the Gore essay. Here's a quote:

Under the presidency of George W. Bush, the environmental and energy policies of our government are completely dominated by a group of current and former oil and chemical company executives who are trying to dismantle America's ability to force them to reduce the extremely dangerous levels of pollution in the earth's atmosphere.

I'd love to see GW Bush's reply, that is, assuming he can even spell Kyoto. One thing I do know: Dumbya is guilty of some extremely evil things.

Organic Gardening News

Visit our new blog for organic gardening news and views about organic farming and sustainable agriculture. I think this one is crowded enough, and I needed a place to put stuff quickly, where it wouldn't clog up our organic gardening site.

On my travels to find a quote from James Watt at the new organic gardening news site, I found this great list of quotes from the religious fanatics who are actually in charge of this country right now.

"Don't let anything like trees in the Clearwater National Forest get in the way of providing jobs and fueling the economy, even if that means cutting down every last tree in the state." --Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth R-ID during her 1994 campaign

Cloning with Clothes Hangers

Once again the idiocity of the extreme right has reared its monkey head in the form of George W. Bush, spewing out the word unethical like he was some backwoods Texas steer screwing preacher. These people want abortions performed on back alley butcher tables with wire clothes hangers (apt punishment for women who get pregnant due to recreational sex). Along a similar vein, they want to call a glob of cells smaller than the head of a pin a human life and ban all human cloning, even though it could cure a wide range of debilitating human ailments (in people a lot bigger than the head of a pin). Of course, human cloning will happen, in England, Italy, and plenty of other places around the world. The thought of brain drain doesn't scare Bush at all, having had his vacuumed out by the many kilos of coke he snorted while AWOL from the National Guard, and kids with less powerful, uh, connections, died in Viet Nam. I'd really like to see Georgie Boy argue with the 40 Noble prize winners who support cloning for research and theraputic purposes.

Using Crisis to Justify their Pay-back to their Energy Donors

At Long Last? By PAUL KRUGMAN

Yet a few months ago, Republican activists ran ads with side-by-side photos of Tom Daschle and Saddam Hussein, declaring that both men oppose drilling in ANWR — and Dick Cheney, when asked, stood behind those ads. Administration critics could, with rather more justification, run ads with side-by-side photos of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, declaring that both men oppose increased fuel efficiency standards. (Actually, I'm not aware that Iraq's ruler has expressed an opinion on either issue.) Of course, if such ads did run, there would be enormous outrage. After all, turnabout wouldn't be fair play because, well, just because.

Krugman also points out that "Tom DeLay recently declared that if we'd had a leader like Mr. Bush, we would have won the Vietnam War." WOW. That is amazing, since Bush's daddy made sure he got in the National Guard during Nam, where Bush proceeded to get so coked up that he couldn't pass his physical, so he went AWOL. So, on my travels to awolbush.com I found an impressive list of who served and who didn't. This is amazing. Seems the whole idea that Republicans are better War Mongers is based on the fact that very few of them actually served in the military. Ironic, isn't it, that the party of War has no experience in it. Maybe that's why they're so willing to send young men to die.

Bush's preacher says God wanted him to be President

That's right. The Almighty himself wanted Bush to be President, according to the Rev. Michael Taylor of the Spartan Canaan Baptist Church, in Crawford, Texas. Now, I have a few questions for the good Reverend, who's e-mail I could not find on line. First of all, I'd like to know why, with all that's going on in the world, God would take time out of his/her busy day to inform a small town Baptist preacher in some backwater hole knee deep in Texas steer shit about his plans for the US Presidency. But most of all I'd like to know why the Almighty himself, while he was hand-picking a president, didn't simply give the man A MAJORITY of the votes. If anyone can contact the great Reverend Taylor, please ask his podunkness that one for me. In the mean time, I'll be trying to figure out why GOD would support a lying, AWOL, coke-head for president. Oh, and I'll keep posting stories like the ones below, just in case God is not a bigot, or just in case there is no God, or, just in case LEAVING GOD OUT OF ALL THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. For Christ's sake, people, when we're being bombed by religious fanatics, maybe getting into a "My God can beat up your God" argument isn't the best thing. Maybe, just maybe, we could prove we're right about something without having to alienate all the people on this planet who believe differently than some hillbilly Reverend. Maybe we could INCLUDE all the people who, like me, don't believe in God. At least not a Republican one. I know from what I've read of that work of fiction called the Bible (Harper's Magazine, March, 2002, "False Testament" by Daniel Lazare) that Bush's favorite Philospher, Jesus Lord in person himself, was a liberal. Besides, judging from the stories below, if there is a God and he chose Bush, I don't want to have anything to do with him. Everything I ever learned about Christianity tells me that George W Bush should burn in hell for his sins.

The Bush Administration Lied About Spencer Abraham's Contacts with Energy
Executives

"As he helped the Bush administration write its national energy report last year, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham heard from more than 100 energy industry executives, trade association leaders and lobbyists, according to documents released by the Energy Department. Mr. Abraham did not meet with any representatives of environmental organizations or consumer groups, the documents show. In a press release on Monday night, the Energy Department summarized the secretary's calendar by saying that Mr. Abraham met with 36 industry representatives on task force matters. Most news organizations reported that figure today. But Mr. Abraham actually met with 109 representatives of energy industry companies and trade associations... 18 [of which] contributed a total of $16.6 million to the Republican Party since 1999, nearly three times what they gave to the Democratic Party." So reports the NY Times. We demand ALL of Cheney's Secret Energy Task Force documents!

Flight 93 Evidence Mostly Points to Shootdown by Military Jet

At 9:58 a.m. on 9-11, Dick Cheney ordered the military to shoot down Flight 93 three times, with "a fighter in the area." At 10:06, Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, PA. Before the crash, ground witnesses heard explosions
followed by quiet, and saw the plane flip. Debris - including human remains and a one-ton engine part - was found as far as 8 miles from the crash site on a breezeless day. Witnesses also saw an unmarked white jet flying low
nearby. Did a military jet - either an F-16 or a specially-equipped government plane - shoot off an engine under orders from Dick Cheney? The Pentagon denies it, and the cockpit tape offers few clues. The truth will not be known until the government releases the complete results of its investigation, including the two flight recorders, radar readings, the debris field map, and passenger phone call records. We demand a Blue Ribbon investigation!

Yes, Virginia, the Bin Laden Family DOES Have a Connection to the Carlyle Group - and That's Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Fortune Mag. reports, "Are you the sort of person who believes in conspiracies--the Trilateral Commission secretly runs the world, that sort of thing? Well, then, here's a company for you. The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C., buyout firm, is one of the nation's largest defense contractors. It has billions of dollars at its disposal and employs a few important people. Maybe you've heard of them: former Secretary of State Jim Baker, former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, and former White House budget director Dick Darman. Wait, we're just getting warmed up. William Kennard, who recently headed the FCC, and Arthur Levitt, who just left the SEC, also work for Carlyle. As do former British Prime Minister John Major and former Philippines President Fidel Ramos. Let's see, are we forgetting anyone? Oh, right, former President George Herbert Walker Bush is on the payroll too. The firm also has about a dozen investors from Saudi Arabia, including, until recently, the bin Laden family."

There's more at our Bush News page.