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Monday, March 22, 2004 |
FEATURED ARTICLES
- "Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism (SMART)", Friends Committee On National Legislation
- "Death of a patriot: No more", The Free Press
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."
- - Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MARCH 22nd
1947 -- US President Harry Truman issues an order calling for strict FBI check-ups into the loyalty of all prospective Federal employees. The order results in the creation of the "Attorney General's List" of subversive organizations. It requires more than 2 million people to swear they never directly or indirectly associated with any of 78 subversive organizations listed by Attorney General Tom Clark. Employees are invited to speak "freely" -- with absolute discretion -- about any "deviant" acquaintance. Not even those named will learn who snitched (unable to confront their accusers). The first person convicted under the order is Rhodes scholar & publisher Carl Marzani, who was sentenced to 3 years in prison for perjury. The last organized resistance to the loyalty oaths will be a 1949 lawsuit by 26 postal workers. Several hundred federal employees are fired under the program & 438 people will resign rather than sign. Thousands more remain under suspicion for years.
RHINO HERE:
Last week, a group of U.S. congressional representatives introduced legislation calling for the adoption of what they deemed "Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism (SMART) Security Platform for the 21st Century." This so called SMART legislation was drafted by a coalition including The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Physicians for Social Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions all working with the office of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). This effort appears to be an intelligent and balanced plan to address the threat of terrorism. The Rhino urges you to look over the summary of the legislation and contact your Congressperson as described below.
Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is a scary tale on the death of one of the loudest whistleblowers concerning the electronic voting machine scandal. the article asks if this might be a Karen Silkwood style offing. You read. You be the judge.
Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism (SMART)
Friends Committee On National Legislation, 3/18/04
SUPPORT SMART SECURITY: On March 18, Reps. Lynn Woolsey (CA), Joseph Hoeffel (PA), Barbara Lee (CA), Raul Grijalva (AZ) and others introduced legislation calling for the adoption of a "Sensible, Multilateral American Response to Terrorism (SMART) Security Platform for the 21st Century." H Con Res 392 articulates the need for a new U.S. security policy based on preventing acts of terrorism, strengthening international cooperation and the rule of law, reducing weapons proliferation and promoting disarmament, and addressing the root causes of terrorism and other deadly conflict. Staff at FCNL helped draft this legislation with the office of Congresswoman Woolsey and with colleagues at Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and Women's Action for New Directions (WAND).
When FCNL began its "Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict" program two years ago, most members of Congress were not familiar with the concept or potential of peaceful prevention. Now, with the introduction of this bill, Rep. Woolsey and her colleagues are actively promoting policy that addresses the threats of terrorism, failed states, and armed conflict before they erupt into violence. As Rep. Woolsey noted on the floor of the House on March 17, "Smart Security is about prevention, not preemption."
ACTION: Call, fax, email or write your representative and urge him or her to cosponsor H Con Res 392, the "SMART Security Platform for the 21st Century," or thank your representative if he or she has already co-sponsored the bill. Ask him or her to speak out in favor of policies that support the peaceful prevention of deadly conflict, and to educate other members of Congress on the need for strengthening cooperative security and advancing alternatives to war. Offer to send him or her a copy of this legislation (available here on FCNL's web site: http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/Woolsey.pdf) along with FCNL's booklet "If War Is Not the Answer, What Is? The Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict." This booklet can be downloaded as a PDF from FCNL's web site, http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/ppdc_booklet.pdf, or you can order your copy by emailing your request to anna@fcnl.org.
CONTACTING YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS EASY: Start with the sample letter posted in our Legislative Action Center, personalize the language, then email or fax your message directly from our site. You can also print it out and mail it. To view the sample letter, GO TO:
Contact
then enter your zip code and click <Go> in the <Take Action Now> box.
ALL THE INFO ON THE SMART BILL IS POSTED AT:
http://www.fcnl.org/act_lam_current/actnow_lam_index.htm
8:13:12 AM 
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Death of a patriot: No more
by Bob Fitrakis, The Free Press, March 17, 2004
The subject line on yesterday's email read: "Another mysterious accident solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives." The attached news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12th death of perhaps America's most influential advocate of a verified voting paper trail in the era of touch screen computer voting. Gibbs, an accountant for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote system, died when his vehicle collided with an 18-wheeled truck which rolled his Chevy Blazer several times and forced it over the highway retaining wall where it came to rest on its roof.
Coincidence theorists will simply dismiss the death of Gibbs as a tragic accident - the same conclusion these coincidence theorists came to when anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood died in November 1974 when her car struck a concrete embankment en route to a meeting with New York Times reporter David Burnham. Prominent independent investigators concluded that Silkwood's car was hit from behind and forced off the road. Silkwood was reportedly carrying documents that would expose illegal activities at the Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel plant. The FBI report found that she fell asleep at the wheel after overdosing on Quaaludes and that there never were any such files. A journalist secretly employed by the FBI, and a veteran of the Bureau's COINTELPRO operation against political activists, provided testimony for the FBI report.
Gibbs' death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle. I interviewed Athan Gibbs in January of this year. "I've been an accountant, an auditor, for more than thirty years. Electronic voting machines that don't supply a paper trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that's being taught in American business schools," he insisted. "These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in America would buy a machine that didn't provide a paper trail to audit and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase machines that you can't audit? It's absurd." Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a "VVPAT, that's a voter verified paper audit trail" he noted. Gibbs also suggested that I look into the "people behind the other machines." He offered that "Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you're an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You'll find some interesting material."...
REST OF THE ARTICLE POSTED AT:
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/853
RELATED ARTICLES
"Diebold, Electronic Voting And The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" - February 24, 2004
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834
Behind Every Bush There's A Scandal" - February 21, 2004
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/837
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6:38:44 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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