No worries here - after all, we can certainly trust the thieves who stole our country to do the right thing.

The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

Such guidelines do not currently exist, said DeForest B. Soaries, head of the voting panel.

Soaries was appointed to the federal Election Assistance Commission last year by President Bush. Soaries said he wrote to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in April to raise the concerns.

“I am still awaiting their response,” he said. “Thus far we have not begun any meaningful discussion.” Spokesmen for Rice and Ridge did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Soaries noted that Sept. 11, 2001, fell on Election Day in New York City and he said officials there had no rules to follow in making the decision to cancel the election and hold it later.

Events in Spain, where a terrorist attack shortly before the March election possibly influenced its outcome, show the need for a process to deal with terrorists threatening or interrupting the Nov. 2 presidential election in America, he said.

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Disney, which refused to distribute “Fahrenheit 9/11″ on the grounds that it is a thought provoking and truthful representation of how we were manipulated into the quagmire that Iraq has become political film, apparently has no problem with getting behind a film that they are praising as the anti-F9/11 .

So now Disney is collaborating with the conservative group that tried in vain to keep Fahrenheit 9/11 out of theaters and threatened CBS last year until the network agreed to drop its TV movie “The Reagans.” (The leader of this group, Howard Kaloogian, was also involved in the unseating of California Gov. Gray Davis). You’ll remember that Fahrenheit was originally scheduled to be released by Disney’s Miramax unit, but the company dropped Michael Moore’s movie because of the film’s content. Now we have a better window into Disney’s rationale.

Sorry we missed this press screening of Disney’s film “America’s Heart & Soul,” which the company is touting as a cinematic antidote to Fahrenheit 9/11. On the VIP list, the invite says, were Disney reps, Howard Kaloogian and his colleagues — and Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse!

From the press release:

MOVE OVER MICHAEL MOORE…
Disney & Move America Forward
Team Up to Show a Brighter Side of America

(SACRAMENTO) — Move America Forward is teaming up with Walt Disney Pictures to present an exclusive screening of Disney’s “America’s Heart & Soul” on Monday, June 28, 2004 at the Crest Theater in Sacramento, California. The private screening takes place at 1:00 PM and members of the news media are invited to attend. “Americas Heart & Soul” opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 2nd.

Unlike the negative and misleading storyline of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Disney’s “America’s Heart & Soul” features a collection of upbeat storylines of real life Americans who pursue their passions in a way that underscores what makes America a great nation.
……

On its Web site, Move America Forward complains that: “Those who oppose the War on Terror have the mouthpiece of the mainstream media to disseminate their propaganda to the entire nation in an almost unchallenged effort. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week it is bash America, bash the military and bash the Bush administration.” This, of course, is hardly true — but it’s even more ridiculous now that the company that owns ABC News is associated directly with Howard Kaloogian’s anti-Moore efforts.

Michael Moore’s reaction to the Disney/Kaloogian alliance: “Disney joining forces with the right wing kooks who have come together to attempt to censor Fahrenheit 9/11 must mean that Dumbo is now in charge of the company’s strategic decisions. First, Disney tried to stop the movie from being released and now it is aligning itself with the very people who are trying to intimidate the movie theaters from showing the movie. Even Daffy Duck would tell you this makes no sense. This latest development only further disproves what Michael Eisner had claimed about ‘politics’ not being behind Disney’s decision not to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11.”

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This sounds like a very reasonable proposal. I bet Jeb! shoots it down like a voter-mandated initiative.

Gov. Jeb Bush should increase voter confidence by calling Florida’s Legislature into special session to order an independent audit of the state’s voting system, a group of South Florida activists said Tuesday.

The organization, which calls itself the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, wants audits of all touch- screen electronic voting machines used in 15 Florida counties during the Aug. 31 primary.

The other 52 counties use optical-scan machines, in which voters mark a box on a paper ballot, which is then read by machine.

“He can either be the leader in election reform or he can stick his head in the sand and do nothing,'’ said Sandy Wayland, spokeswoman for the coalition.

The group wants to be sure the machines record the touch-screen vote, tabulate it accurately and produce a paper report showing what happened.

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Hillsborough Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a 51 year old woman for handing out literature at an AMC theater. There were cops at every AMC theater that I am aware of. They were stationed in order to prevent under aged people from seeing this movie and to prevent others from exercising their freedom of speech.

Actually, on private property, you have no freedoms. That is why many civil libertarians are concerned about the long trend away from gathering in public spaces like parks and toward gathering in private spaces like malls and shopping centers.

Even in the parking lot, this activist was still on private property, thus she really had nowhere to legally pass out literature. I’m really not sure why AMC decided to host this movie if the chain is so concerned about the potential behavior of the people in attendance, but by posting uniformed police in front of every entrance to Fahrenheit 9/11 and not in front of other theaters, they managed to create the feeling that simply seeing this movie was a subversive act.

On Saturday night, Elizabeth Zollner wanted to see a movie.

Not just any flick. The 51-year-old Brandon woman bought tickets to the documentary igniting political passions. And after watching Fahrenheit 9/11, she planned to pass out a handful of fliers promoting a political event featuring the movie’s director, Michael Moore.

Politics proved the least of her worries.

Early Sunday, Zollner was jailed on charges of trespassing, obstructing an officer and battery on a law enforcement officer after an encounter outside Brandon’s AMC Regency 20. Her arrest was the only one reported from last weekend’s opening of the Bush-bashing film at AMC theaters nationally.

Zollner was released Sunday morning on $4,500 bail. A graduate student at the University of South Florida, she has no prior arrest record in Florida.

Zollner said officers unfairly singled her out for political reasons.

“Would they put a police officer in Shrek?” said Zollner, who is trying to hire an attorney to fight the charges. “They were looking for people who might try to do any political activity.”

AMC Theaters were warned about political organizing around Fahrenheit 9/11, said Rick King, of Kansas City, Mo., a national spokesman for the chain. Company policy prohibits distributing in theaters.

Zollner said a security officer asked her to stop passing out fliers in the lobby for MoveOn PAC, a liberal advocacy group, so she moved to the sidewalk. The officer noted that she remained on private property, she said, so she moved to the parking lot.

By then, a crowd formed. More officers arrived.

“They were pushing me and bullying me, and I didn’t like it,” said Zollner. She said she did not realize she was dealing with an off-duty Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy. In the push, Zollner said, she began to fall and raised a leg for balance.

Sheriff’s deputies saw things differently.

“She kicked our deputy in the leg and laid down on the ground,” said Lt. Rod Reder, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office.

“It looked like overreacting,” said Joyce Halstrom, who watched her domestic partner’s arrest in horror. “I’m 60 years old. Joyce is 51 years old. We’re not rabble rousers. We just wanted to do our part to take care of the troubled situation George Bush has gotten us into.”

Now, who, exactly, “warned” AMC about dangerous activists like Ms. Zollner, and what were the nature of these warnings?

Fight the power. Buy unaccompanied kids tickets to this “R” rated movie and escort them into the theater if you need to in order to ensure they get in unmolested by security. 15 year olds will be killing and dying in our names very soon. They need to see this movie now.

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Get Up with MorningWood, on 70,000 Watt Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org. 4 to 6 am (eastern) every Tuesday!

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Blogging on the radio: comments and insights rants on news and events.

I’m totally out of time - gotta get to the station. Here’s what I think I may do / talk about / whatever:

F911 is going strong. Encourage America’s youth to sneak into this particular “R” rated movie: offer to procure tickets and help get ‘em into the theater.

A MorningWood exclusive: an shorter, edited for radio version of this interview. (Right Click the link and “Save As” to save to your hard drive and then play. Interview stolen from Sadly, No!. Pay them a visit and steal something for yourself.) For radio play, I just cut out some of the excess due to time constraints. I’m sure I didn’t change the context or anything. Really. Actually, the interview in its full unedited length is pretty damning all by itself. But wait - it gets worse - Bush was given the questions ahead of time and still managed to completely bungle the interview. Then the White House retaliated against the Irish TV station by cancelling a scheduled interview with the First Lady.

IRR callups back on:: (a few weeks ago, the military was denying the possibility of such a callup, though recruiters were using it to their advantage.)

The U.S. Army is planning an involuntary mobilization of thousands of reserve troops to maintain adequate force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials said on Monday.

The move — involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve — represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.

Roughly 5,600 soldiers from the ready reserve will be notified of possible deployment this year, including some soldiers who will be notified within a month, said an Army official speaking on condition of anonymity.

A senior defense official said, “These individuals are being called back to fill specific shortages for specific jobs.”

The official said the last time the Individual Ready Reserve, mainly made up of soldiers who have completed their active duty obligations, was mobilized in any significant numbers was during the 1991 Gulf War.

Army officials are in the process of briefing members of Congress on the mobilization and plan a formal announcement on Wednesday.

The Army official said the mobilization “will be through the rest of the year. Some could be within a month.”

“It would be an involuntary measure, an involuntary mobilization,” the Army official said. “It’s approximately 5,600.”

Playlists

Each week, I bring my planned songs in on CD. I usually end up playing most or all of them in the planned order. But sometimes things go askew. Sorry - no guarantees or refunds.

Hour 1 planned playlist

Hour 2 planned playlist

Live playlist

WMNF Community Radio

WMNF is a non-commercial community radio station that celebrates local cultural diversity and is committed to equality, peace and social and economic justice. WMNF provides broadcasts and creates other forums to serve the community by the exposure and sharing of these values.

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And Miami Mayor Alex Penelas was snubbed because his police force beat the shit out of some Union members during the FTA protests. Penelas has also been criticized for stopping the vote counting during the 2000 election - many feel that he left Al Gore hanging out to dry.

Fuck Alex Penelas.

The labor group snubbed Penelas because of what leaders described as his indifference to the alleged mistreatment of labor demonstrators during a Free Trade of the Americas meeting last November. Union members were upset that Penelas did not condemn police force used on protesters.

“We had retirees who were thrown to the ground and handcuffed. They had tear gas fired on them,” said Rich Templin, a spokesman for the Florida AFL-CIO. “When the smoke cleared, (Penelas) said what a great job law enforcement had done.”

Penelas campaign spokeswoman Danae Jones said that Penelas encouraged protesters to file complaints if they thought their civil rights had been violated. He also supported an investigation into what happened, she said.

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This weekend’s News” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.boxofficemojo.com/articles/news/?id=040627bo.htm”>More here:

Around three million people elected Fahrenheit 9/11 to be the No. 1 movie of America.

Incensing as many as it’s entrancing, writer-director Michael Moore’s Bush bash celebrated over the weekend with an estimated $21.8 million at 868 theaters, Lions Gate trumpeted on Sunday along with co-distributors IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group — the latter quickly formed by Miramax chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein to release the $6 million picture after buying it back from corporate parent Disney. Around $10 million was spent on prints and advertising, less than a third of the average Hollywood release.

With $21.958 million in the till since its record-breaking debut in New York City on Wednesday, Fahrenheit 9/11 is already the highest grossing documentary of all time — excluding large format, concert and other non-”apples-to-apples” sub-genres – surpassing Moore’s own Bowling for Columbine’s $21.6 million lifetime gross.

Fahrenheit is also the first documentary to land in the weekend top five, let alone be No. 1. Its opening topped Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction’s $9.3 million as the best ever for a Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, and it was Tarantino’s jury that handed Moore the prize this year.
……

Fahrenheit’s performance harkens back to the days when big movies wouldn’t play in every nook and cranny of the country, but would bow at around 700 or 1,000 theaters to sell out crowds. Perhaps the greatest example of this, Return of the Jedi debuted to $23 million at 1,002 theaters in 1983, which would adjust to $45 million by today’s ticket prices. In terms of raw dollars, Fahrenheit is actually the biggest opening ever for a movie playing at less than 1,000 theaters, topping Rocky III’s $12.4 million at 939 venues.

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Dave runs a blog which seems pretty liberal, open minded, fair, and all that. That’s why I had a link to his blog on my blog. But now I’m having second thoughts.

See, Dave is a self-proclaimed fundamentalist, and while he’s not holding me responsible for a comment left by a BlogWood reader, he does expect me to disown the comment.

The topic was fundamentalist Christians and their never-ending quest for absolute power in this country. One featured fundamentalist was lamenting what she perceived to be a shortage of “righteous judges” and politicians despite the fact that she is on the Hillsborough County Judicial Nominating Committee and thus has a very strong voice in the naming of new judges.

Anyway, Chris, the BlogWood reader, left the following comment:

I’m vomitting right now. We need to feed these folks to the lions b4 they get out of hand.

Now, Dave, what part of that comment would you have me disown? I certainly have no problem with her nausea, so we’ll skip that part, okay?

Further, lions have to eat something, and it seems to me that a herd of right wing zealots whose beliefs are such that they often lead to acts of wholesale violence in the name of Santa Claus, er, God, would make a wholesome, though possibly very bitter, meal.

Fundamentalist Christians are the fundamental enemy of our participatory democracy. As a group, they tend to seek the destruction of the very important separation between your church and our state.

Many fundamentalists believe that the end time is near. They think that God is getting ready to swoop them up to heaven just ahead of the apocalyptic fires that are flaring up to consume the rest of us, so they care not about their fellow man.

These people think that environmental laws are unnecessary, since the world will be gone soon anyway. They believe that George W Bush is doing right as long as he keeps crusading in the Mid East and elsewhere in the world.

Fundies think that gay people can be cured. They say that sexual orientation is an individual’s choice. (A choice? Hmmm, so, at some point in their lives, these fundies must sit down and think: “Well, I can’t have it both ways, even though I’m obviously attracted to both sexes. Let’s see… I can openly seek a same sex partner and be shunned by my fundie family and friends, or I can be openly straight and just lust after same-sex partners in my heart and hope for an occasional priestly sodomization…” - At least, that’s the only intellectually honest explanation I can come up with for their professed beliefs and attempts to cure the faggots who made a choice to sin.)

Speaking of fags, fundamentalists blamed fags and liberals for 9/11. Fundies shoot and maim those who disagree with their politics. They refuse to compromise on anything. “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance is nowhere near enough for them. They insist on full-fledged prayer in school and viciously attack anyone who stands in their way, even more moderate fellow Christians.

Fundamentalist Christians have closed, brainwashed minds and they seek to eliminate any and everything that they fear or just plain don’t understand. And there’s a lot that they don’t understand.

They are my enemy because they declared war against me by attacking my lifestyle, by legislating morality, by holding themselves up to be somehow better than myself, and by being so uncompromising that they refuse to concede that there may be room in this country and this world for more than one point of view.

Fuck the fundamentalists.

Posted as Religion

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Just saw it. It’s everything you’ve heard. And more. Go see it. And if the theater chain in your neighborhood is strictly enforcing the age limits for this particular “R” rated movie, offer to buy some unaccompanied kids their tickets. Kids need to see this. They’re the ones who are gonna be killing and dying in our names for the foreseeable future.

Fahrenheit 9/11 Trailer

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Florida Tickets

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Jim Davis is taking advantage of the Bush administration’s mishandling of Cuba. Yeah, like most other things they have touched, they have managed to screw things up there too. New travel restrictions designed to make W look tough against Castro have actually created a rift in the Cuban exile community, which traditionally votes strongly Republican. See, family members would like to be able to visit with and send medicine and other goods to their relatives on the island, but Bush’s new rules prevent that.

Traditionally, any politician who dared to suggest a relaxation of even the most insignificant of Cuba trade rules would be rudely hounded out of office. Now, though, Davis is able to suggest some baby steps in normalizing relations with our close neighbors. Very small little baby steps, but it’s nice to see an indication that the tide may turn at some point.

Daisy Carbonell arrived at her neighborhood shipping company this week on a mission of mercy for her relatives in Cuba.

She lugged a garbage bag bulging with goods, including a dozen pairs of girls’ underwear, three ladies’ dresses, four men’s pullovers, two packs of disposable razors, five cans of roll-on deodorant, two tubes of toothpaste and five bars of soap.

She also packed allergy medicine, vitamins and vials of vitamin B, D and C in injectable form.

She tries to send such items every month to three cousins and their families through what is known in Spanish as an envio company.

That’s on top of the $50 a month she sends.

“I promised them I would send them help every month,'’ Carbonell said.

New government restrictions, which take effect Wednesday, will make that harder for her to do.

Those restrictions sharply limit what Cuban-Americans can send to relatives on the island nation.

The regulations outlaw shipment of clothing, shoes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing and soap-making equipment.

The restrictions come on top of previously announced regulations restricting travel to Cuba by Cuban-Americans and limiting how much they can spend when they get there.

Under the new rules, Cuban-Americans can visit their family members in Cuba only once every three years and spend no more than $50 a day.

U.S. Rep. Jim Davis introduced legislation Thursday aimed at overturning the tightening of travel restrictions and spending limits. He also will seek changes to what family members can ship.

“Having been in Cuba 18 months ago, I know how terribly families are suffering under that regime,'’ Davis said. “One of the few sources they have for support are their families in the United States that provide them basic necessities.'’

In the past, families could send monthly shipments to individual relatives. Beginning Wednesday, it’s one shipment per month per household.

Backers of the new restrictions can only keep singing the same tired old tunes that got us into this mess in the first place:

“I think they are doing the right thing,'’ said Luis Ribo, 83.

“This is the only way they are going to get rid of Castro. All of the cash and aid people send to Cuba lines his [Castro’s] pockets and keeps him in power.'’

Enrique Cotera, 66, put it like this:“Everything that is done against Castro is a good thing. Castro is a dictator that has ruled by fear and intimidation for 45 years.'’

In the Miami area, about 60 percent of the exile community still feel an invasion of Cuba is warranted. This is actually good news, though, as these numbers are down from previous years, and as the older generation, the folks who fled Cuba as Castro took power, dies off, and the more reasonable attitudes of their offspring become the norm, we may actually be able to have a civil discussion about Cuba policy without veering off into insults and violence against our neighbors.

Posted as Florida

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