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Thursday, December 15, 2005

Notable Quotes From Around the Internets

NOTABLE QUOTES FROM AROUND THE INTERNETS
First Up: Patricia Goldsmith from Dissident Voice:
When it comes to e-voting, the corporate media have put out a couple of narrative frames that have been successful in throwing even voting reform advocates off the track. The most obvious is the conspiracy frame. Stephen Pizzo, who ultimately advocates the abolition of e-voting in order to restore voter confidence, nevertheless believes “[t]he party caught fixing a major race would be out of power for a generation. Also, if I learned anything from a quarter century of unraveling real and alleged conspiracies it’s that getting caught is always in the cards.” In this, he finds himself in substantial agreement with conservative columnist and former Reagan administration official James Pinkerton. It seems to me their argument would be a lot stronger if the GOP hadn’t already been “caught” attempting to fix every single election since 2000. Hell, they do it out in the open, proudly. People like Katherine Harris, Glenda Hood, and Ken Blackwell have made whole careers out of purge lists, voter intimidation, and aggressive partisanship in the administration of elections.

That’s because what we are seeing in operation is not a conspiracy, but unchecked monopolies and corporate combinations, and there is nothing fanciful or farfetched about it. The concentration of wealth and power is the ultimate point toward which all capitalist systems tend. The last 70 years of (relatively) regulated corporations are the exception, not the rule. Privatized voting is a perfect example of how the undermining of government regulatory mechanisms leads to one-party rule and further deregulation, in a self-perpetuating cycle. We see the same thing with the highly-consolidated corporate media. Neither is a “conspiracy” required in order for the various corporate entities to act in concert. Combination is in their best interests, and successful corporations are all about finding and pursuing their own best interests, as single-mindedly as sharks. Which explains why the corporate media have virtually ignored a recent GAO report detailing serious e-voting failures in 2004.

Read the whole thing here.

Second up, my cousin Leonce (who now has permalinks for some of his links):

Open Letter to Colin Powell 01/11/05 13:14

Like you, my father was a career Army officer. Like you, he felt honored to serve in the US military. Like you, he entered the military when racism was overt. Like you, he rose to officer status (he retired a Colonel) despite the obstacles placed in his path. You receive the benefit of the doubt, General Powell. You receive it because black people admire the heights you attained in your career, and because you have never become a sock puppet for the right. You never acquiesced to the Faustian bargain that men like Clarence Thomas or Armstrong Williams seem to accept. You never agreed to forget you were black--in exchange for white handlers rewarding you as if you were white. You never felt you had to do as Thomas Sowell does and deny the existence of racism today or yesterday. You aligned yourself with causes you felt right, despite their lack of popularity in the Republican party to which you belonged. You have deserved the benefit of the doubt. However, to date, over 2000 Americans are dead, over ten thousand wounded; hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis are dead. The US standing in the world continues to plummet. Terrorist activity is on the rise. The Iraq war has caused these things, and you presented the evidence to the world that made that war happen. We now know that the evidence you presented was based on lies. You insist that you did not know that, and I, and most others, believe you. However, apologies are no longer enough. As this administration continues to damage US security, attempts to strip citizens of hard-won rights through packing the Supreme Court with extremists--as this occurs, you no longer have the luxury of remaining silent. Loyalty is valuable, but "just following orders" is a coward's excuse. When, General Powell, does the former morph into the latter? I think that time is now. It's when the blood runs so thick, that only the blind or the morally corrupt cannot see it, and only the ideologically crippled refuse to acknowledge it. That time is now.
(Scroll down and read the rest...)

NOT USING HALOSCAN ANYMORE. PLACE COMMENTS HERE.