can we believe yet?

VOTE
* and a triffic new ohio recount story - turns out there were little white oval stickers on some ballots that were placed over the bit where 'jonk' was (previously) filled in. affadavits included. odd. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=7

* Kucinich: "I hope the Administration does not engage in wishful thinking that this farce of an election can beget anything other than farce. What a disservice we do to Iraqis who risk danger to cast their votes or run for office in this irredeemable formality. And what distortion of real democracy is being done in America's name: It will surely discredit the United States in the eyes of the world," http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0126-07.htm




WAR
* teddykennedy: cwly? http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050127/pl_nm/iraq_kennedy_dc_8

* hersh speech from demnow http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204 and hersh on jons http://homepage.mac.com/onegoodmove/movies/ds012505hersh.html

* cnn: obl is either dead or alive, according to experts. http://www.bigbrainboy.com/blog/bigbrainboy/the_sad_sad_face_of_modern_journalism

* ritter (not in the ampress of course) "But, through the invasion of Iraq, a crime of gigantic proportions has been perpetrated. If history has taught us anything, it is that it will condemn both the individuals and respective societies who not only perpetrated the crime, but also remained blind and mute while it was being committed." and quoting powell in 2002 ""If Iraq was disarmed as a result of an inspection regime that gave us and the security council confidence that it had been disarmed, I think it unlikely that we would find a casus belli."" http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1399228,00.html

* the chron (and others) wonders why the jhu/lancet 100,000 deadiraqi number got bad/no press. i again make the point that this 100k number only takes us to august anyways - now we are 6 months later - ie another 30% (in time) http://chronicle.com/free/2005/01/2005012701n.htm

* meanwhile the beeb's panorama is reporting some #s that there were 3000 'civillians' killed between july-december - 2/3rds of em killed by the coalition.

* Sidney Blumethal: (does he ever get printed in the ampress?) "But this week the Pentagon announced that the US force level would remain unchanged through 2006... "I don't know where these troops are coming from. It's mystifying," Representative Ellen Tauscher, a ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, told me. "There's no policy to deal with the fact we have a military in extremis."" http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1399501,00.html



* "WHAT WAS THE WAR REALLY ABOUT? Astonishingly, two years on there is no clear answer. " truly astonishing. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=605327



AMDOM
* "You wouldn't know it from reading the newspapers, but Sen. Barbara Boxer served her country valiantly last week. In her grilling of Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, Boxer finally named the elephant in the hearing room, which is more than the war itself. It's the lies that got us there." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-carlson27jan27,0,655679.column

* boxer thanks dailykos http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/27/124226/410

* blinky: ""I think the goal ought to be to convince people to value life. But I fully understand our society is divided on the issue and that there will be abortions. That's reality. It seems like to me my job is to convince people to make right choices in life, to understand there are alternatives to abortion, like adoption, and I will continue to do so."" lukery: there are alternatives to abortion, like contraception. you idiot. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/politics/28prexy.html

* idiot bumiller "But even while acknowledging that Iraq is at a pivotal point in its history, Mr. Bush appeared far more relaxed than he was in August, when he was last interviewed by The Times, in a changing area off a men's room, during a campaign stop in New Mexico."

* "He laughed when asked about his admission on Wednesday, during a news conference, that he had not read the article in the periodical Foreign Affairs written in 2000 by Condoleezza Rice, his new secretary of state, laying out his foreign policy. "I don't know what you think the world is like, but a lot of people don't just sit around reading Foreign Affairs," he said, chuckling. "I know this is shocking to you."
could he be more stupider? seriously.

* idiotblinky: "destroying life to create life is not ethical" - destroying live to pretend to create democracy is really fun, however.

* go read the article - its funny. apparently torture is bad, but tortured journalism is good, torturing words is even better, and torturing logic is the cherry on top. stupid president. stupid nyt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/politics/28prexy.html

OTHER
* amygoodman is in london sun if u are bored "Sunday, Janurary 30th, 14:00 THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULERS: Independent Media in a Time of War "
http://book.democracynow.org/tourpage.php?id=324






_________________________________________________________________



war makes me mad, sad, bad. tsunamis makes me sad.
wotisitgood4.blogspot.com