4 August 2004

http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html

Call the Travis County Democratic Party, 512-477-7500, (or your local Democratic Party) and volunteer for the coordinated campaign.

DOMESTIC

BILL MOYERS

Has the idea of democracy out-lived its usefulness? Is now the time for the true rulers of nature, the wealthy and powerful, to thrive while the rest of us get by? LBJs press secretary speaks out.

This is the Fight of Our Lives

Keynote speech given by Bill Moyers at Inequality Matters Forum, New York University, June 3, 2004.

Jefferson realized that whatever things are really good for any human being are really good for all other human beings. The happy or good life is essentially the same for all: a satisfaction of the same needs inherent in human nature. A just society is grounded in that recognition.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0616-09.htm

http://www.nyu.edu/

http://www.inequality.org/findoutmore.html

http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html

AMERICANS INCOMES SHRANK FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE YEARS

Forget four years ago, are you better off than you were last year? I hope so.

The unprecedented back-to-back declines in reported incomes was caused primarily by the combination of the big fall in the stock market and the erosion of jobs and wages in well-paying industries in the early years of the decade.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040729/ZNYT01/407290799

LUCK OTHE IRISH

Joe Black was supposed to be a lector at his niece's wedding in Crafton PA. Instead, he's sitting in a federal prison in Philadelphia, a man transformed by America's post-9/11 obsession

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04192/344406.stm

INTERNATIONAL

MAP OF ASIA

According to some news reports, there may be some evidence that members of al Qaeda passed through Iran to get to Afghanistan. Afghanistan, in south-central Asia, is land-bound. To get there, one must travel through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, or Iran. Not only is Iran by far the most accessible (unless youre already in Pakistan), it is by far the easiest to spell! And if you were to check the geography, youd probably find the roads much smoother in Iran too.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/images/asia-political-map.gif -- political map of Asia

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html - CIA World Factbook

http://travel.state.gov/ - U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs (potentially helpful for traveling abroad)

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/af.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/afghanistan.html - Afghanistan

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tx.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/turkmenistan.html - Turkmenistan uses our Texas abbreviation!

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/uzbekistan.html - Uzbekistan

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ti.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/tajikistan.html - Tajikistan

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/china.html - China

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pk.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/pakistan.html - Pakistan

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ir.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/iran.html - Iran

The CIA defines Iran as a theocratic republic, the Department of State defines Iran as a constitutional Islamic republic. In either case, it may fall within the same general category of being a democracy as their neighbor Israel does.

IRAQ INSURGENCY LARGER THAN ONCE THOUGHT

I wonder who was doing the thinking.

Although U.S. military analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells can call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 -- an estimate reflected in the insurgency's continued strength after U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.

I did not know the Coalition of the Coerced had killed as many as four thousand Iraqi freedom fighters in April, did you?

http://www.wtnh.com/global/story.asp?s=2016606&ClientType=Printable

http://www.nwc.navy.mil/defaultf.htm

JEWS FOR PEACE

Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI) is a group of American Jews who believe that a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel is attainable through negotiations based on international law and the implementation of relevant United Nations (UN) resolutions.

http://www.jppi.org/

MUSLIM PEACE FELLOWSHIP

Nonviolence was not invented by Mohandas Gandhi. It is not some kind of Christian fantasy. It isn't a trick designed to let other people run roughshod over us. It's a way of winning, and of keeping a victory won. This method has been an inseparable part of the message of the prophets from the very start.

http://www.mpfweb.org/200110_asa.html

PALESTINIANS FOR PEACE

International Womens' Peace Service (IWPS)

IWPS Palestine is an international team of 16 women based in Hares, a village in the Salfit Governorate of Occupied Palestine's West Bank IWPS supports Palestinian and Israeli anti-occupation groups in their grassroots resistance to end the brutal and illegal military Occupation.

http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/nonviolence.htm

PALESTINE AGREES TO DELAY UN RESOLUTION ON WALL UNTIL AFTER USA ELECTION

Reportedly, the Palestinian Authority is set to delay this measure until the US presidential elections take place in November.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/700/re2.htm

PAX

TRUFFULAUT