TRUFFULAUT #16

http://home.earthlink.net/~truffulaut/id27.html

7 June 2004

Certified Reagan-free

CRUCIAL ELECTION NEWS

Those of you who live here in Austin, Texas, should vote today for VERONICA RIVERA for the Austin Community College (ACC) Board of Trustees in the run-off election. For more information abt her, read her bio from the May election:

http://www.austincc.edu/gvtcr/Elections%20ACC/electionbio.rivera.htm

Early voting begins today, June 7, 2004 and runs through June 15, 2004. Vote today if you can; vote as early as possible. Unless you are unable to move, do not wait until election day, June 19, 2004 vote NOW for VERONICA RIVERA:

Early voting locations, courtesy of ACC (http://www.austincc.edu/gvtcr/Elections%20ACC/061504Early%20Voting%20Locations%20(English%20%20Spanish).doc):

ACC Highland Business Center

5930 Middle Fiskville Road

ACC Rio Grande Campus

1212 Rio Grande

ACC Northridge Campus

11928 Stonehollow Drive

ACC Eastview Campus

3401 Webberville Road

ACC Riverside

1020 Grove Blvd.

ACC Pinnacle Campus

7748 Hwy 290 West

ACC Cypress Creek Campus

1555 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park

If you find yourself incapable of voting early and find yourself hankering to vote on election day:

http://www.austincc.edu/gvtcr/Elections%20ACC/061904Polling%20place%20Exhibit%20(English%20%20Spanish).doc

The Travis County Democratic Party has endorsed VERONICA RIVERA:

http://www.traviscountydemocrats.org/fullstory.php?artid=572&db=current_issues

è The reason this race is so important is that Ms Rivera is being opposed in the run-off by a stealth candidate who, from his early rabid days as vice chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas to his fanatically right-wing current positions (including the curious and indefensible belief that the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the student population is irrelevant and what really matters is the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the hiring pool of PhDs **) has shown nothing but contempt for the great experiment in democracy our nation undertook over two centuries ago by embracing dangerously reactionary ideologies and allying himself with known enemies of the state.

(**It is impossible to increase the percentage of historically under-represented populations in the hiring pool of PhDs without first increasing those percentages among the student population.)

Texas Freedom Network was concerned enough abt him to issue a warning advisory:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-04/pols_feature4.html

I am not calling him by name -- vote for VERONICA RIVERA now, and when you go to bed tonight, you can fall asleep with a clean conscience.

Once you have done your civic duty, please peruse the following items and feel free to share all or part with many others.

ENVIRONMENT

PARK SERVICE FIRES TERESA CHAMBERS FOR HONESTY

The following is the closing commentary of Bob Scheiffer from the March 28 Face the Nation on CBS. "...that is a start, but it is just the latest chapter in a tale of Park Service mismanagement in which multimillion-dollar projects have been launched without congressional approval and authorization and the Park Service police chief was fired for revealing she didn't have enough police officers to guard the national monuments. So I have another travel tip. Give the Park Service brass their walking papers. They shouldn't be out of work long. They can hire out as clowns."

http://honestchief.com/

ANTARCTICA ONLY PLACE TO LIVE

Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the British government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57030&storyID=3563950

HIGH TEMPERATURES MELT ARCTIC ICE CAP

Summer temperatures in the Arctic have risen at an incredible rate over the past three years, leaving large patches of what should be ice as open water. British polar explorer Ben Saunders was even forced to a abandon an attempt to ski solo from northern Russia across the North Pole to Canada on Monday, saying he had been amazed at how much of the ice had disappeared.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_8012.shtml

Ben Saunders expedition:

http://www.sercotransarctic.com/

WAR AND PEACE

THE GENEVA CONVENTION

Article 1: The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.

...unless the USA is run by murderous lunatics.

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm

CONFIRMED COALITION CASUALTIES, UPDATED DAILY

The list below reflects the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, and [Coast Guard and naval sailors] whose families have been notified of their deaths by each country's government.

http://www.arab2.com/radiotv/coalition-deaths.htm

AMERICA'S MILITARY COUP

Donald Rumsfeld has a new war on his hands -- the US officer corps has turned on the government.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1215613,00.html

In 1992, General Colin Powell, chairman of the joint chiefs, awarded the prize for his strategy essay competition at the National Defense University to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dunlap for The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012 [which] is today circulating among top US military strategists.

THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY COUP OF 2012

...the coup was the outgrowth of trends visible as far back as 1992. These trends were the massive diversion of military forces to civilian uses, the monolithic unification of the armed forces, and the insularity of the military community.

http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/1992/dunlap.htm

US GUARDS FILMED BEATINGS AT TERROR CAMP

Dozens of videotapes of American guards allegedly engaged in brutal attacks on Guantanamo Bay detainees have been stored and catalogued at the camp

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1217973,00.html

REMEMBERING D-DAY

The day Allied bombers destroyed my home town...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=528424

RUSSIA

ADDRESS TO THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION BY VLADMIR PUTIN MAY 26, 2004

Now that the USA is the only superpower on earth, Russia is irrelevant.

http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2004/05/262021_64906.shtml

http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2004-state-nation.cfm

http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/

A FEW GOOD MEN

VERMONT'S US SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

http://leahy.senate.gov/

There are many reasons, the genesis of which dates back to the Presidents fateful decision to shift gears from fighting al Qaeda, which had attacked us, to overthrowing Saddam Hussein, who had not attacked us and who apparently had no plan or ability to. That decision, followed by a remarkable series of miscalculations and misguided policies, has enmeshed our troops in an ill-fated, costly war from which neither the President, nor anyone else in his Administration, appears to have the faintest idea of how to extricate ourselves.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200405/0520041.html

THE WINNER OF THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SPEAKS ABT FEAR

Terrorism, after all, is the ultimate misuse of fear for political ends. Indeed, its specific goal is to distort the political reality of a nation by creating fear in the general population that is hugely disproportionate to the actual danger the terrorists are capable of posing. That is one of the reasons it was so troubling last week when the widely respected arms expert David Kay concluded a lengthy and extensive investigation in Iraq for the Bush Administration with these words: "We were all wrong."

http://www.dialnsa.edu/special_events/gore_1.ram - video

http://www.moveon.org/front/gore.html - transcript

http://c-span.org/

MEDIA

COULD THE FCC POSSIBLY BE HYPOCRITICAL?

On the hypocrisy meter, where 10 is the highest number, this goes to 11.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4997812/

REUTERS STAFF MEMBERS ABUSED IN IRAQ

The three [Iraqis working for Reuters] first told Reuters of the ordeal [during January detention] after their release but only decided to make it public when the U.S. military said there was no evidence they had been abused, and following the exposure of similar mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/18/soldiers.abuseclaim.reut/index.html

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE!

http://www.mwscomp.com/sounds/mp3/brghtsd.mp3

THE COVERT COMIC

I now realize that, as a CIA officer, I shouldn't be asking, 'Who are we going to torture this week?' What I should be asking is, 'Whom are we going to torture this week?'

http://www.covertcomic.com/

THIS DOES NOT BELONG HERE

UFOs spotted and recorded over Mexico City by Mexican Air Force.

http://www.rense.com/general52/deff.htm

JOHN ASHCROFT'S NIPPLES

If you've ever walked into a museum with your child, you were certainly shocked at the flagrant nudity being touted around for pure shock value. Whatever happened to morals? How can you appreciate art when it's so... nude?

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=2872&display=photoshop#entries

A BOOB IN THE HALL OF JUSTICE

An Open Letter to John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States
Reading by Claire Braz-Valentine

This letter may have shown up in your e-mail some time ago, but it is more fun to watch and listen to the writer read it in front of an appreciative audience:

http://homepage.mac.com/clairebraz/reading.htm

PAX

TRUFFULAUT