Moss V. Bush contesting the Ohio vote results was re-filed on Friday after the original suit was refused because of technicality. The move toward Ukraining of America continues. In the meantime, read below for the link to some great info on the unadulterated exit polls which clearly showed Kerry won. AND consider sending a few dollars to the Ohio Free Press site as they are compiling evidence for a book (due in January) and a movie due next December. I've copied their plea below, but it is valid and essential, even if the amount for premiums (autographed book, dvd) is out of my holiday budget range.

FYI, I got on Randi Rhodes's radio show on Wednesday ("Kate from New York") to discuss the awful Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial declaiming our efforts for a proper count of the election. (see http://www.airamericaradio.com )

Meanwhile -- remember to do your last minute holiday shopping with BLUE in mind -- support those merchants who support our ideas:
http://buyblue.org/current_campaign.html lists the merchants both red and blue (and the percentages).
(Also check out http://www.choosetheblue.com/)

Holiday hugs in a hurry,
Late Kate Anne

==== INFO:

The United States of Ukraine?: Exit Polls Leave Little Doubt that in a Free and Fair Election John Kerry Would Have Won both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote

-- see the pdf file at FreePress.org -- direct link:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/997

This was written by Ron Baiman, Ph.D. December 17, 2004. Economist/Statistician Ron Baiman works as a senior research specialist at the Instituteof Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and teaches at the University of Chicago.


DONATIONS URGENTLY NEEDED for Ohio Election publications
by Free Press staff

(Original published December 16, 2004 at http://www.freepress.org/doit.php?strFunc=display&strID=183&strYear=2004 )

Help us document Ohio's stolen election: be a part of the book & movie!
Please donate today.
Just before November 2, Dr. Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman published "Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote" at freepress.org. 

Widely circulated throughout the internet, the piece proved prophetic.  But what really happened in Ohio has been "locked down" by the major media.

.... see site for more and donate via site or sending money via mail:
You can make out a check to the "Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism" and send it to:
The Free Press
1240 Bryden Road
Columbus, Ohio 43205

The Ohio Supreme Court threw out the Verified Election Contest Petition on a technicality -- it contested two elections. It is a little confusing, but suffice it to say that they put too much in it, given the same background. They compared and contested the Bush/Kerry election to the results of two different Ohio races. Stay tuned for updates at such places as FreePress.org -- the Election department should be found at http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19 -- I noticed that the AP article on this issue which TruthOut published was updated on the original -- go there if checking. They plan to re-file, separating the arguments, but time is of the essence.

And Common Dreams.org had some great stuff today, including an article by Walter Wink on nonviolence entitled Jesus and Alinsky -- need to read the whole thing: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1216-30.htm

So how does a peace and justice activist finish Christmas/holiday cards barely started AND some obligatory shopping AND decorate AND work a paid job AND clean house AND keep one's personal peace? Not easy, but it is a challenge I am trying to meet as I maintain friendships and family bonds. All I want for Christmas is a miracle: enough votes in Ohio and other places to reclaim the stolen election. Well, no, more than that -- all I really want is true peace which includes true justice, then I would have the other stuff, too. It isn't that easy, of course. We can, however, claim peace in THIS moment: let's breathe, center, find our personal peace, and pass it along.... That should be our gift to ourselves and to the folks we meet, indeed, to the whole world. Begin to find peace in every moment, again and again. Yes.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

While working on my Christmas letter, I was reviewing notes and was led to revisit Michael Sky's ThingPeace.com site. At his site I found what I feel is the best post-election 2004 article, written by Ernest Partridge, co-editor of "The CrisisPapers", entitled WHY WE MUST NOT “GET OVER IT”. I agree. With folks planning to petition the Ohio courts today about setting aside the Bush victory there given the outrageous voter intimidation, suppression, and fraud, this is NOT the time to "get over it." I've live-linked the article on my links page, but it's http://www.crisispapers.org/essays/get-over-it.htm and you can find it at Michael's site OR at crisispapers.org OR google for it. Well worth your read between sending out cards and holiday shopping. And your best gift this season my spreading it to your open-minded thinking friends.

Peace and holiday hugs,
Kate Anne

...to be jolly. Sorry, no can do. I am amazed that more people are not speaking up about the election suppression/fraud and am NOT looking forward to four more weeks of a Bush administration, let alone four more years. Of course, people are not aware because of media suppression and/or the belief that "It can't happen in our country" -- this, despite the fact that it DID happen in 2000. So I've posted some new links and now I have to go out and do some shopping. But I WILL try to buy blue -- see http://www.buyblue.org/ and urge those who believe in democracy not to spend money at places where they gave megabucks to Bush, whose campaign organized yet another stolen election. The truth WILL come out -- but I hope and pray that it is sooner rather than later. (Please, God -- AMEN.)

"No justice, no peace." Count all the votes in Ohio (and Pennsylvania and New Mexico and all those places the exit polls show higher vote counts to Kerry), but what about the people who went home without voting due to the obscenely long lines? On Monday in Ohio folks are petitioning the courts to declare that Kerry won (and present all the fraud, suppression, etc. evidence). Maybe the media will finally pick up on it? Well, now to put on my orange ribbon for reclaiming our democracy and get outta here....

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Where's the outrage? There's a small article in the NY Times on Congressmember Conyers' hearings on the serious Ohio voting problems. See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Ohio-Vote.html but God forbid there be good coverage because others would be like me and come to the obvious conclusion that Kerry won and would have won bigger except for the long lines that Ohio Secretary of State and Bush for President co-chair Ken Blackwell manufactured by limiting the number of voting machines in highly Democratic areas. Seven hours to vote is outrageous in our democracy, especially when it didn't take seven hours in the Republican Ohio precincts. (People were told to go to the wrong precinct, and voted provisionally when they found this out after a long wait, then Blackwell made a ruling that if they weren't in the correct district their vote wouldn't be counted, even if they were properly registered -- 51% of the provisional ballots in Cleveland were tossed out.)

Then there is the other issue of corporate ownership of the ballot box: atrocious. Tamperable electronic voting machine software is a security issue and leads to questionable results, especially when there is no paper-trail to verify the voting. Perhaps we should go back to paper ballots. I would volunteer my time to help count. I want my country back. I will continue to update my "Favorite Links" page as I find more articles, but let's contact our congessmembers and TELL THEM HOW WE FEEL. (Fill in your zip+4 at http://www.house.gov to get your congressmember's name and contact info.)

In the meantime, Ohio presidential electors are questionable -- the biased Blackwell has obstructed the certification of the Ohio vote and held up the recount -- he should be prosecuted! And to be fair to Ohio and our country (and the world), perhaps a re-vote should take place in the whole state. In Ukraine, there were demonstrations because exit polls showed that the declared winner had lost. Ohio's exit polls showed Kerry won despite the voter intimidation and suppression in Ohio. Yes, democracy was thwarted in Ohio and in our country. Stand up and speak out: to our neighbors, to our congressmembers, to the media! This is NOT the time to be polite: Be OUTRAGED -- and act. The country we save is ours.

(And PLEASE check out electronic voting expert Teresa Hommel's wonderful links about the election at http://www.wheresthepaper.org/after11_2.html )

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Spent the weekend in Saratoga Springs at the NY State NOW conference. I was there with Sherry Rogers and her husband Mel Moskowitz, Brooklyn Queens NOW president Shirley Ranz, and some other great feminists. With Bush in the White House more of us have to place emphasis on women's rights. Unfortunately, my candidate slate lost the election. We'll see how well the others can heal the usual election wounds, but one thing for sure, we cannot give up.

On the election scene, I have posted some new links and we'll hope that Congressmember Conyer's hearing on the Elections today gets some news coverage. The good news is that C-SPAN confirmed they will be broadcasting the hearings beginning at 10:00 AM Eastern time.
Radio Pacifica will be streaming it live so it can be viewed online at www.pacifica.org and www.kpfa.org. Let's hope that it gets archived and repeated.

This Saturday is a big march in Columbus, Ohio, on the voting debacle -- and on Wednesday, Congressmember Conyers holds hearings on the Ohio Vote Fraud (see http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120404W.shtml). There is a great letter written by Conyers, Nadler, et al. to Blackmen. Meanwhile, Kerry gained some 17,000 votes without (much of) a struggle. But Blackmen stalls on certifying the Ohio count until Monday, thus delaying the recount effort. Truth Out, indeed! But let's not wait until after Bush is inaugurated for a second illegitimate term. Ask C-span to air the entire hearing and continue to speak up.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Evidence points that the Bush Crime Family has approved the use of napalm in Iraq. Yesterday Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes broadcast news of this on her afternoon show, an hour of which was repeated at 5 AM this morning on WLIB, AM1190. Please see her website and/or google "napalm Iraq". I've linked her site as a favorite, but you can find it (as well as updates on the Ohio recount) at http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/ -- If you are at a computer in the afternoon you can stream Randi from 3 to 7 pm. Go to AirAmericaRadio.com and check it out. Randi rules. Indeed, she's now suggesting peace folk in search of democracy wear orange armbands/ribbons. Let's think about that one. In the meantime, PLEASE join me in contacting our Senators and Congressmembers to investigate this probable napalm use -- and if it is napalm-like, it is napalm, and the latest moral outrage committed on innocent people whose only crime was to have Saddam Hussein as a leader. (Randi also speculated it wasn't WMDs that took us to Iraq but Saddam's threat to use the euro instead of the dollar when dealing oil.) See the ACTION page for Hillary's and Chuck's (our NY Senators) contact info.

Tikkun Executive Director Robyn Lundy visited Sunnyside Queens to discuss their spiritually focused peace and justice community. Speaking to Sunnyside Woodside Peace, she emphasized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and possible resolution. I've acquired more reading material and will be checking out their website at length (tikkun.org), but I like their idea of healing the world with the focus on love, compassion, generosity, and other things POSITIVE as the way to peace and justice, rather than the fear and death and destruction and momentary quickly dissolving solutions which the USA foreign policy has emphasized. The Fellowship of Reconciliation links with the Tikkun community with good reason. There is much to be done. God help us all to do what we can to help heal the world -- and not destroy it.

It is World AIDS Day and the tree lights at Rockefeller Center will be lit today even as others will be hearing Amy Goodman at a City-wide meeting of United for Peace and Justice. Healing, yes, please, God. Let's light up the world with healing, compassion, love, good things -- not bombs and "the rockets red glare".

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne