Recount in Ohio a sure thing

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release:  November 15, 2004

Contact:   Blair Bobier, Media Director at 541.929.5755

                  <mailto:b2@bobierlaw.com> 

  RECOUNT IN OHIO A SURE THING

Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000 in 4 days,

Shifts Gears to Phase II

   

             There will be a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio.

             On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004
presidential candidate, announced his intention to seek a recount of
the vote in Ohio.  Since the required fee for a statewide recount is
$113,600, the only question was whether that money could be raised in
time to meet the filing deadline.  That question has been answered.

             "Thanks to the thousands of people who have contributed
to this effort, we can say with certainty that there will be a
recount in Ohio," said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the
Cobb-LaMarche campaign.

             "The grassroots support for the recount has been
astounding.  The donations have come in fast and furiously, with the
vast majority in the $10-$50 range, allowing us to meet our goal for
the first phase of the recount effort in only four days," said Bobier.

             Bobier said the campaign is still raising money for the
next phase of the recount effort which will be recruiting, training
and mobilizing volunteers to monitor the actual recount.

              The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous
press and independent reports of mis-marked and discarded ballots,
problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted
disenfranchisement of African American voters.  A number of citizens'
groups and voting rights organizations are holding the second of two
hearings today in Columbus, Ohio, to take testimony from voters, poll
watchers and election experts about problems with the Ohio vote.  The
hearing, from 6-9 p.m., will be held at the Courthouse, meeting room
A, 373 S. High St., in Columbus.  The Cobb-LaMarche campaign will be
represented at the hearing by campaign manager Lynne Serpe.

              A demand for a recount in Ohio can only be filed by a
presidential candidate who was either a certified write-in candidate
or on the ballot in that state.  Both Green Party candidate David
Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik will be demanding a
recount.  No other candidate has stated an intention to seek a
recount and no other citizen or organization would have legal
standing to do so in Ohio.  The Cobb-LaMarche campaign is still
exploring the possibility of seeking recounts in other states but no
decision has been made yet.

             The Cobb-LaMarche website is
<http://www.votecobborg/>http://www.votecobb.org.

             The website for the national Green Party is
<http://www.gp.org/>http://www.gp.org.


Resent as public service by:
--
RICHARD JOHNSON, publisher MENDOCINO COUNTRY newspapers
P.O. Box 533, Talmage, CA 95481
(707) 468-1009

"We are accessories to mass murder"- John Kaminiski

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Freeland

To: kenfree@ev1.net

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 3:56 PM

Subject: FW: Who is the real enemy?

Who is the real enemy?

Do you support your country
even if what it does is evil?
So what does that make you?

By John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net

It is truly a devil of a choice.

Support American soldiers murdering innocent civilians throughout Iraq and win the hollow, uneasy applause of your neighbors?

Or do you secretly root for Iraqi civilians turned revolutionaries trying the defend their war-wracked country against the murderous Western invaders ... and risk being arrested for treason?

You've heard the stories, if you've chosen to listen. Here's today's roundup: Gunmen in American helicopters shooting a family of five trying to swim across a river while escaping the carnage in Fallujah. Or killing doctors and nurses who were trying to help those wounded by indiscriminate American bombing. Or that story of the American soldier "finishing off" an injured Iraqi man.

These are only the latest of thousands of heartless atrocities wreaked on a ravaged country by an overwhelming military force that can only be described as completely insane. Representing a country that can only be described with the same phrase. The country in question is yours. Can you deal with that?

What America is doing to Iraq is a thousand times worse than Saddam Hussein every dreamed about doing to anyone! What America is doing to Iraq is worse than any dictator, no matter how vilified, has ever done to any other country!

You've heard the pornographic tales about Abu Ghraib prison. How does it sit with you that Americans are regarded as sadistic sex perverts by the rest of the world? Judging by the behavior of American soldiers, that is what we are.

And what do you do about it? How do you react, sitting in your easy chair on Sunday watching football? Turn to your favorite Internet porn site?

Try to ignore all those stories about the election, a trickle turning into a tidal wave of evidence that shows Bush got more votes than there were voters in a number of states? But if your thought process is that evolved, you realize that overturning this recent smelly election would not solve the problem, because the guy who lost is just as much a warmonger as the guy who won.

So you go back to your football game, and maybe turn up the volume a little, just in case you have a little bit of conscience left and can hear in your mind the distant screams of women and children being cut to ribbons by American ordnance in Fallujah. And all for no good reason.

You know, the thing that really gets me about the American butchery in Iraq is that it is a well-known fact — doubted by no one — that the reasons uniformed American men and women are even in Iraq are lies. Well-established lies, proven many times. No weapons of mass destruction. And no connection to al-Qaeda (even though al-Qaeda was invented by the CIA as an excuse to make wars everywhere).

Yet it apparently has occurred to no one with any degree of power in this warped society of ours that this means all the lives we have squandered in our War of Lies in Iraq are an absolutely evil abomination, completely unnecessary, except to maintain the fiction that the lies about weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda somehow don't really matter, and that we can kill anybody we want at any time.

There are two ways you can look at this. If you know a little about real American history, you know we have butchered people all over the world and clothed the horrific deeds in noble rhetoric so as not to offend our bloated sense of self-worth. If you know this, then you are part of the choir I so often preach to.

But if you think America has any remaining shred of decency and honesty in the way it barges around the world, killing innocent people with impunity as it goes, then I have to tell you that in your profound and deliberate ignorance, you are an accessory to mass murder. By your silence and inaction, you are assisting in the daily murders of innocent people.

Are you too stupid to make the connection? Waging war on the basis of lies is mass murder, and you are supporting it. Could it be any clearer?

I strongly urge anyone who supports the murderous and evil American presence in Iraq to instruct their children to immediately go and start killing their own neighbors, especially if their skin is not lily white, because this is exactly what the U.S. invasion of Iraq is telling us to do. We don’t need a reason to kill people, unless it’s because they have something that we want.

Since Iraq has something we want — namely oil — it’s OK to kill them. That’s what we are teaching are children. This is no joke. That’s what our children are learning. Just listen to the soldiers in Iraq describe what they are doing.

How they have unleashed their savage hatred against people who have never done a thing to hurt them.

Oh, don’t argue 9/11 to me. Iraqis had nothing to do with 9/11. That atrocity wasn’t carried out by Arabs, it was carried out by rich white men who pretend to be pious Christians and Jews hiding behind their billions of dollars.

For Americans, this is the profound lesson of the Iraq war. We don’t need a reason to rob and kill someone anymore. Our religious president says it’s the right thing to do, and has destroyed our Constitution, as well as our reputation around the world, to prove it.

And this is the lesson of 9/11. You stage a terror attack to convince the world we need to fight terror. This is what the Israelis have done over the last century to the Palestinians.

But it appears that we as a people — the American people — will never learn this lesson. Or, we will never learn it in time, anyway.

We have let our world be radically changed by a few evil, rich, white and soulless businessmen who control the information we receive and the appartus that governs us, and now we have let 200-plus years of relative freedom go down the drain simply because these men wanted to make even more money and sold us on a story that convinced us we were in danger from a foreign threat, just like they always do, just like they have always done.

They have changed the character of the world based on a big lie that we swallowed because we failed to have the courage to challenge what they said.

And look what happened. This killing will never stop, you know. The dogs of war have been unleashed. Those American kids who are doing all that killing in Iraq will bring all the stuff back home, and give it to us here.

You’ve heard about the plans, of course, haven’t you? The economic collapse, the concentration camps for debtors and dissenters. Sure, watch your football game. It can’t possibly happen here. Don’t let your mind wander to the Fallujah scenario being transferred to Oakland, or Ann Arbor, or Houston.

I know, for most of you, it’s already too late to change your mind. The die in cast (and the cast will soon be dead).

Paste that “Support Our Troops” ribbon on the back of your car. That way the rest of us will know you are cheering for mass murder because of reasons that are lies.

And when you look in the mirror, don’t look directly into your own eyes. That’s what happened to some of our soldiers who came back from Iraq, you know.

You know. Some of the ones who went down to the cellar and put a bullet into their temple.

Should your soul suddenly click on after its long period of dormancy, it could happen to you, you know.

This little snippet of an old song has been playing in my head these last few days. It reveals how old I am. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. 1970. “Wooden Ships.”

Horror grips us as we watch you die.
All we can do is echo your anguished cries.
Stare as all human feelings die.
We are leaving — you don’t need us.

America has become a nation of moral cowards and intellectual liars. Maybe the good people should get out, while they can. A curdled country like this doesn’t deserve to survive.




John Kaminski is a writer who lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and is acutely ashamed, in this rancid day and age, to be an American.


THINKING ABOUT HOLIDAY GIFTS? If you receive this e-mail, it's because sometime in the past you have told me you liked what I'd written, and thought it was valuable that more people should hear what I have to say. With Christmas coming on, here's a chance to kill two birds with one stone: help spread the word that a more humane world is possible, and help keep me writing by buying one of my books, either for your own library or for friends who might need to have their worldview radically expanded. The new collection, "The Perfect Enemy," covers many of the most significant issues that affect the well-being of our world today. The booklet, "The Day America Died," remains one of the clearest overviews of what happened on 9/11. The first collection, "America's Autopsy Report," was called by one reader "a wake-up call we can't afford to ignore." Do your friends, and me, and maybe even yourself, a big favor. Buy a book. My ability to keep writing depends on your response. Given the climate in the world today, as the forces of evil continue to clamp down on freedom of speech, there's no telling how much longer books like this will continue to be available. If you like, go to http://www.johnkaminski.com/ .... and thanks. -JK

Fw: Kerry is keeping his promise- from Michael Malone

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Michael Malone

To: carol wolman

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 7:50 AM

Subject: Re: For today: Enlightenment by Carol Wolman

Hope and Peace are on the way! Just need to let go of the fight and have some fun. Kerry is "not" going to show his cards. Why? He made a promise to America. He would continue to fight for Americans. He is keeping his promise. He was accused of flip flopping he never had done. Now, that he is remaining on a steady course, supporters expect John Kerry to "change his mind", because "they" need a repeated promise. God promised us too. God answers prayer and he keeps his promises. God considers the whole world, first, since he didn't promise just Americans. He is answering and keeping his word. God gave Kerry the wisdom and intelligence to "do the smartest thing and stay on course". Lawyers know more than Bush the puppet dictator. Kerry is making the correct moves. Stay the course, trust Kerry, and test Kerry by trusting that he is who we all saw at the debates. Smart, wise and above all else "the most patient man in the world". Kerry put up with Bush, when he would like to have slapped him silly. Give John Kerry credit where it is due. He has shown us his human side, his great strength and his daughters reflect his kindness and heart. Have some faith. Has he done anything wrong deserving our distrust or has he simply done the smart thing, "just as he said about the stupid bush war". If I were John Kerry I would be crying out for just "a little faith in him from his once supportive helpers and voters." Surely, there are many wonderful acts of faith left inside of us all, yet. You all said, John Kerry is our "ONLY" HOPE and hey, he is a pretty nice person. I know I did. My hopes are with Senator John F. Kerry.  And there they will stay. After all, if a person is treated like a thief or criminal, "he may just begin acting like a criminal...or at the least..."lose hope himself" and stop trying. Why cannot we begin a movement "in total support of Senator Kerry?" So that, he feels supported and does an even better job of fighting for "our agenda and our votes to count". John Kerry "needs our support right now, just as much as  WE NEED JOHN KERRY'S HELP AND SUPPORT! Lets do this, okay kids? Hope everyone will send Senator Kerry "holiday cards of faith in God and our good and true friend John F. Kerry". It's time to party in advance celebration of President John Kerry. And let God know we have faith he answered our prayers, after all, John Kerry did win. Got to believe, to have the miracles. Create what we all want in your mind and let it be, okay now? God bless, Mike 

----- Original Message -----

From: carol wolman

To: peacemakers

Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 12:51 PM

Subject: For today: Enlightenment by Carol Wolman

Enlightenment by Carol Wolman

 

Enlightenment is painful.  When we see the truth, we see through the hypocrisy of the pious rulers, we see the horrible crimes that are being committed and the dangers that are mounting up.  We see the blindness of the Christians who support Bush, and marvel at it. 

 

We could sink into despair, easily.  But I am amazed at the spirit of resistance that is bubbling in all the usual places. 

 

Evidently Bush's priority right now is quelling the rebellion in Iraq, and he feels secure enough at home to ignore the boiling rage of so many voters, as the evidence of a rigged election keeps mounting.  The major media are keeping the lid on, the New York Times and the Washington Post having run editorials assuring us that Bush won fair and square. 

 

But Nader is demanding a recount in New Hampshire, and the Green and Libertarian candidates are doing the same in Ohio.  Kerry's lawyers are busily and quietly examining the voting procedures, but whether to gather material for a challenge or to pacify us, no one is sure. 

 

Meanwhile, Bush is in charge.  We all know that the Patriot Act is in effect, and our emails may be read at any time without our knowledge.  How quickly our liberties will be eroded from now on is anyone's guess, but the restraint of another election is gone. 

 

Some Marine tanklike things "got lost" and wandered into a peace protest on Veterans' Day, reminding us that posse comitatus, which forbids the military from getting involved in domestic police actions, can easily be suspended. 

 

I'm thankful that Bush stole the election by rigging machines rather than by a terrorist attack.  So far, so good.  And we still have some freedom, although TIPS, tanks, and other horrors are lurking in the background.  If anyone could be worse than Ashcroft, it's Gonzales.  Are we in for Abu Ghraib at home?

 

Enlightenment is not necessarily fun.  But we must keep our spirits up.  It helps to have faith in a loving and just God, despite all the effort to portray Him as vengeful and sadistic.  I believe that sanity and goodness will prevail, somehow, before it is too late.

 

If we are blind, if we shut our eyes to the gravity of our situation, we will not survive.  If we shut out God, if we lose faith in His love for us and His desire that we choose life, we will despair and give up, and we will not survive.

 

Jesus told the blind man, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."
He immediately received his sight
and followed Him, giving glory to God.

Luke 18: 42-43

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/111504.htm

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,   Carol Wolman

Fw: Wrecking the CIA BY KNUT ROYCE

Porter Goss, Bush's new chief of the CIA, is purging "dissidents" Kremlin style.  Unfortunately, these are the guys who have been working hard to prevent terrorist strikes in this country.  Because they believe their job is to tell the truth rather than to toady to a dictator, they are being fired. 

 

So much for "homeland security"!   Bush's true agenda is apparent- getting rid of the opposition so he can consolidate his dictatorship!

 

In the name of the God of truth,   Carol Wolman

 

----- Original Message -----

From: A

To: carol wolman

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 1:17 PM

CIA plans to purge its agency

Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush

BY KNUT ROYCE
WASHINGTON BUREAU

November 14, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow.

But the former senior CIA official said that the White House "doesn't want Steve Kappes to reconsider his resignation. That might be the spin they put on it, but they want him out." He said the job had already been offered to the former chief of the European Division who retired after a spat with then-CIA Director George Tenet.

Another recently retired top CIA official said he was unsure Kappes had "officially resigned, but I do know he was unhappy."

Without confirming or denying that the job offer had been made, a CIA spokesman asked Newsday to withhold naming the former officer because of his undercover role over the years. He said he had no comment about Goss' personnel plans, but he added that changes at the top are not unusual when new directors come in.

On Friday John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year veteran of the intelligence division who served as acting CIA director before Goss took over, announced that he was retiring. The spokesman said that the retirement had been planned and was unrelated to the Kappes resignation or to other morale problems inside the CIA.

It could not be learned yesterday if the White House had identified Kappes, a respected operations officer, as one of the officials "disloyal" to Bush.

"The president understands and appreciates the sacrifices made by the members of the intelligence community in the war against terrorism," said a White House official of the report that he was purging the CIA of "disloyal" officials. " . . . The suggestion [that he ordered a purge] is inaccurate."

But another former CIA official who retains good contacts within the agency said that Goss and his top aides, who served on his staff when Goss was chairman of the House intelligence committee, believe the agency had relied too much over the years on liaison work with foreign intelligence agencies and had not done enough to develop its own intelligence collection system.

"Goss is not a believer in liaison work," said this retired official. But, he said, the CIA's "best intelligence really comes from liaison work. The CIA is simply not going to develop the assets [agents and case officers] that would meet the intelligence requirements."

Tensions between the White House and the CIA have been the talk of the town for at least a year, especially as leaks about the mishandling of the Iraq war have dominated front pages.

Some of the most damaging leaks came from Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, who wrote a book anonymously called "Imperial Hubris" that criticized what he said was the administration's lack of resolve in tracking down the al-Qaida chieftain and the reallocation of intelligence and military manpower from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq. Scheuer announced Thursday that he was resigning from the agency.

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc

Fw: "Let Them Drink Sand!" by Alex Cockburn

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Karim A G

To: Karim A G

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 10:24 AM

Subject: "Let Them Drink Sand!"

"Let Them Drink Sand!"

War Crimes in Fallujah

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Counterpunch

November 13 / 14, 2004

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11132004.html

 

The United States is bringing "democracy" to Iraq on the same terms that the Russians imposed its federal mandate on Chechnya, a region which has Iraq's future written in its rubble. The advocates of intervention in Iraq, the epigones of Wolfowitz , should take a walk through Grozny, and measure against its ruins the fate of their proclaimed ambition to bring democracy to Fallujah and other cities in Iraq.

 

In the waning weeks of the US election campaign the antiwar movement here in the US, was largely corralled into the Kerry campaign and strangled by the bizarre contradiction of supporting a candidate whose "peace plank" was continuing war. Will it now turn out that for many Kerry supporters their interest in the US war on Iraq was in fact mostly its utility as a rationale for attacking Bush? Now that the race is over, will they forget the war along with Kerry's disastrous campaign?

 

If there is anything that should fuel the outrage of the antiwar movement, it is surely the destruction of Fallujah and the war crimes being inflicted by US commanders on its civilian population, who are now being denied the most basic and essential source of life, water.

 

This is not the first time that US forces have cut water supplies, something explicitly forbidden under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which reads as follows:

 

"Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works."

 

Back in 1991 the US war planners targeted and destroyed the infrastructure of Baghdad's water supplies, and the sanctions thereafter denied new equipment necessary to repair it. In consequence civilians, particularly babies and young children died in vast numbers.

 

Here at CounterPunch we are in receipt of a compelling dossier of the denial of water to Iraqi civilians, assembled by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq (CASI)], whose briefing may also be studied at http://www.casi.org.uk/

 

Water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra and Fallujah have been cut off during US attacks in the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians. This appears to form part of a deliberate US policy of denying water to the residents of cities under attack. If so, it has been adopted without a public debate, and without consulting Coalition partners. It is a serious breach of international humanitarian law, and is deepening Iraqi opposition to the United States, other Coalition members, and the Iraqi interim government.

 

On 19 September 2004, the Washington Post reported that US forces 'had turned off' water supplies to Tall Afar 'for at least three days' . Turkish television reported a statement from the Iraqi Turkoman Front that 'Tall Afar is completely surrounded. Entries and exits are banned. The water shortage is very serious'.

Al-Manar television in Lebanon interviewed an aid worker who stated that 'the main problem facing the people of Tall Afar and adjacent areas is shortage of water' Relief workers reported a shortage of clean water . Moreover, the Washington Post reports that the US army failed to offer water to those fleeing Tall Afar, including children and pregnant women .

 

'Water and electricity [were] cut off' during the assault on Samarra on Friday 1 October 2004, according to Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Independent. The Washington Post explicitly blames 'U.S. forces' for this . Iraqi TV station Al-Sharqiyah reported that technical teams were working to 'restore the power and water supply and repair the sewage networks in Samarra' . Al Jazeera interviewed an aid worker who confirmed that 'the city is experiencing a crisis in which power and water are cut off' , as well as the commander of the Samarra Police, who reported that 'there is no electricity and no water' .

 

On 16 October the Washington Post reported that:

'Electricity and water were cut off to the city [Fallujah] just as a fresh wave of strikes began Thursday night, an action that U.S. forces also took at the start of assaults on Najaf and Samarra.' .

Residents of Fallujah have told the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks that 'they had no food or clean water and did not have time o store enough to hold out through the impending battle' . The water shortage has been confirmed by other civilians fleeing Fallujah, Fadhil Badrani, a BBC journalist in Fallujah, confirmed on November 8 that 'the water supply has been cut off'.

 

In light of the shortage of water and other supplies, the Red Cross Has attempted to deliver water to Fallujah. However the US has refused to allow shipments of water into Fallujah until it has taken control of the city.

 

According to the Cambridge dossier, the information reported above is more widely known in Iraq than in the US and UK, and has had become a significant political issue.

 

Condemnations of the tactic have been issued by several major Iraqi political groups. On October 1 the Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement criticizing the US attack on Fallujah which 'cut off water, electricity, and medical supplies', and arguing that such an approach 'will further aggravate and complicate the security situation'. It also called for compensation for the victims .

 

Three days later Muqtada al-Sadr criticized both the denial of water To Samarra, and the lack of international outrage at it: 'They say that this city is experiencing the worst humanitarian situations, without water and electricity, but no-one speaks about this. If the wronged party were America, wouldn't the whole world come to its rescue and wouldn't it denounce this?'

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11132004.html

 

 

Slapping the Other Cheek by Maureen Dowd- NYT

 

Go to Original     Slapping the Other Cheek     By Maureen Dowd     The New York Times     Sunday 14 November 2004     You'd think the one good thing about merging church and state would be that politics would be suffused with glistening Christian sentiments like "love thy neighbor," "turn the other cheek," "good will toward men," "blessed be the peacemakers" and "judge not lest you be judged."     Yet somehow I'm not getting a peace, charity, tolerance and forgiveness vibe from the conservatives and evangelicals who claim to have put their prodigal son back in office.     I'm getting more the feel of a vengeful mob - revved up by rectitude - running around with torches and hatchets after heathens and pagans and infidels.     One fiery Southern senator actually accused a nice Catholic columnist of having horns coming up out of her head!     Bob Jones III, president of the fundamentalist college of the same name, has written a letter to the president telling him that "Christ has allowed you to be his servant" so he could "leave an imprint for righteousness," by appointing conservative judges and approving legislation "defined by biblical norm."     "In your re-election, God has graciously granted America - though she doesn't deserve it - a reprieve from the agenda of paganism," Mr. Jones wrote. "Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ." Way harsh.     The Christian avengers and inquisitors, hearts hard as marble, are chasing poor 74-year-old Arlen Specter through the Capitol's marble halls, determined to flagellate him and deny him his cherished goal of taking over the Senate Judiciary Committee.     Not only are they irate at his fairly innocuous comment after the election that anti-Roe v. Wade judges would have a hard time getting through the Senate. They are also full of bloodthirsty feelings of revenge against the senator for championing stem cell research and for voting against Robert Bork - who denounces Mr. Specter as "a bit shifty" - 17 years ago.     "He is a problem, and he must be derailed," Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, told George Stephanopoulos.     Sounding more like the head of a mob family than a ministry, Dr. Dobson told Mr. Stephanopoulos about a warning he issued a White House staffer after the election that the president and Republicans had better deliver on issues like abortion, gay marriage and conservative judges or "I believe they'll pay a price in the next election."     Certainly Mr. Specter has done his part for the conservative cause. He accused Anita Hill of "flat-out perjury" for a minor inconsistency in her testimony against Clarence Thomas, that good Christian jurist who once had a taste for porn films.     Some in the White House thought of giving Mr. Specter the post and then keeping him on a short leash. But the power puritans have no mercy. They say he's a mealy-mouthed impediment to the crusade of evangelicals and conservative Catholic bishops - who delivered their vote with ruthless efficacy - to overturn Roe v. Wade.     Mr. Stephanopoulos asked Dr. Dobson about his comment to The Daily Oklahoman that "Patrick Leahy is a 'God's people-hater.' I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people," noting that it was not a particularly Christian thing to say about the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. (Especially after that vulgar un-Christian thing Dick Cheney spat at Mr. Leahy last summer.)     "George," Dr. Dobson haughtily snapped back, "do you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about?" Why not? The TV host is the son of a Greek Orthodox priest.     Acting as though Mr. Bush's decisions should be taken on faith, John Ashcroft lashed into judges for not giving Mr. Bush unbridled power in his war against terror.     Speaking Friday before an adulatory Federalist Society, a group of conservative lawyers, Mr. Ashcroft echoed remarks he made to the Senate soon after 9/11 arguing that objecting to the president's antiterror proposals could give "ammunition to America's enemies."     He asserted that judges who interfere in or second guess the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war can jeopardize the "very security of our nation in a time of war."     And since the president has no end in sight to his war on terror, that makes him infallible ad infinitum?     -------   Jump to TO Features for Monday November 15, 2004    Today's TO Features -------------- 'Let's Kick Ass ... the American Way' Violence Erupts Across Iraq Goss Reportedly Rebuffed Senior Officials at CIA Declining Dollar Puts U.S. At Risk Of Prayer and Payback Maureen Dowd | Love Thy Neighbor? Global Warming Curbs Predicted Edwy Plenel | Bush, God, and Moral Values After Arafat, Palestinians to Vote for New Leader Jonathan Turley | Ashcroft Kicks the Screen Door Losing Its Middlemen, Senate Shifts to Right Presidential Race Still Undecided in New Mexico FOCUS: Bush to Purge CIA Roe v. Wade at Crossroads Fallujah, Breaking a City in Order to Fix It Post-Traumatic Stress, The Unseen Wounds Cut Deep Wesley Clark | Winning Fallujah Is Just the Beginning t r u t h o u t  Home © Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org