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Reviving the “No Nukes” Movement

Americans must first accept the fact that their president is criminal, and with his numerous twitches and jerks, perhaps criminally insane. But, around him is a small group of hardcore ideologues, so-called neocons.

In Ohio, we need to revive the “No Nukes” movement. The Bush administration’s dream of using “bunker busting” tactical nuclear weapons against Iran is an illegal violation of international law. Iran is no threat to the United States. Public documents indicate they are 10 years away from developing any sort of delivery system that would threaten the U.S.

It is absolutely hypocritical for the United States to allow Pakistan, which harbors bin Laden, sold nuclear weapons to the North Koreans, and created the Taliban, to have nuclear weapons while we threaten nuclear annihilation of the Iranian people. The Bush logic of saying “it’s bad to have nukes . . . so we’ll nuke you,” is beyond bizarre. The acceptance of the Israeli nuclear weapons, as well as our complicity in the creation of their nukes, must also be publicly dealt with.

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Fraudbuster Bob Takes to the Air

Look up in the sky. No, it’s not a bird or a plane. It’s Fraudbuster Bob Fitrakis, launching his audio campaign.

Dr. Fitrakis, a lawyer, award-winning journalist, and professor of political science, is running as an independent candidate with Green Party endorsement to become Ohio’s next governor. Our two party winner-take-all electoral system, which was the best of the 18th century but far behind what we need in the 21st century, hinders the campaigns of third party candidates. So, using the latest internet technologies, Fraudbuster Bob is going to leap into the sky and bring his message directly to the voters of Ohio using “virtual Fireside Chats.”

Listen to today’s message, and come back regularly to this blog and Bob’s gubernatorial campaign at www.bobforohio.com to hear the latest campaign news spoken directly by the candidate himself. And please be sure to tell your friends and family to log on as well.
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Katrina Victims Deserve Right to Vote

The civil rights movement is alive and well in New Orleans.  On April 1st, thousands of people marched across the Crescent City Connection Bridge to support the right of displaced New Orleans citizens to vote in the election scheduled April 22.  In a symbolic action that mirrored the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama that generated a nationwide groundswell of support for the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, the “March for Our Right to Return, Vote and Rebuild” in New Orleans was designed to ensure that the displaced residents of New Orleans are not disenfranchised and that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is protected.

Marchers also supported the right to return home for those scattered in 44 states across the nation, as well as a priority to be given to “Katrina survivors” when jobs, contracts and training opportunities are dispensed along the Gulf Coast.

The main reason for the protest, led by Rev. Jess Jackson and others, is the city’s upcoming April 22nd election, which currently excludes two-thirds of the voters who formerly lived in New Orleans. The election has been pre-cleared by state officials and the U.S. Department of Justice, even though voters do not know who is running for office and those seeking office do not know how to communicate with the voters. Organizers of the April 1st event want the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s office to provide the public and candidates an updated voter list, including the FEMA list of Katrina survivors scattered across the nation.   Not to do so, they contend, would amount to a “public election with secret voter rolls,” which is a clear a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Blackwell’s Letter from Franklin County Jail

All along, J. Kenneth Blackwell has been engaging in criminal activity.

He’s responsible for the purging of over 300,000 voters in Ohio between the 2000 and 2004 election, telling voters they were registered on the wrong paper weight, not counting votes cast in the wrong precinct after he had the precincts switched, and stealing the election in Ohio.

He could always count on the Bush boys to bail him out. But now what? He’s caught dead to rights with an unlawful interest in a public contract.

Remember, Blackwell bragged about negotiating the “best in the nation” deal with Diebold. It wasn’t hard, since Wally O’Dell was one of the president’s Pioneer and Ranger team members. Read more

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A Jail Cell for Blackwell

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was forced to reveal Monday in an Ohio Ethics filing that he had inadvertently invested in the notorious voting machine company, Diebold Inc. This is clearly a criminal act and Blackwell belongs in a jail cell. My favorite weasel words from the abysmally corrupt Republican gubernatorial candidate is that, because he didn’t know what his accountant and financial advisor were investing in, it’s “similar to a blind trust.”

The only people who would have to be blind are those who fail to see the deliberate theft of the election by Blackwell and the fact in April 2005, he personally negotiated what he called the “best in the nation” deal with Diebold to purchase their fraud-o-matic touch-screen machines for $2700. This, a la Halliburton, was an unbid contract.

The Diebold machines met with massive disaster in the November 2005 election as untrained workers lost memory cards and more votes that voters appeared in Carlisle and other Ohio cities. Read more

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How We Can Best Defend Our Nation

Our great nation is at a crossroads and we the people must move quickly and creatively to avert catastrophe and defend the national security of our country. On the third anniversary of the unconscionable and illegal attack on Iraq, we must confront the president and his small circle of sycophants. The Bush regime lacks the competence, vision, wisdom and moral compass to lead America. The case is clear. Read more

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Peace is Patriotic

As the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion approaches this weekend, I support the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.

The Iraq invasion is a stain on the integrity of the United States. It is an illegal and immoral war based on perhaps the most well-known lie in the world. That Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It is now being justified by an even more ridiculous lie that we are there to bring democracy to Iraq.

Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorist network responsible for 9/11 are arch enemies of Saddam Hussein. Osama is a pan-Islamic fundamentalist seeking to create a greater Islamic empire. Saddam is a secular pan-Arab nationalist seeking a United States of Arabia.

Now, with the publishing of the Downing Street memos, we know that Bush and Cheney deliberately lied us into war. This violates not only the UN Charter, but the principles we established at Nuremberg. If we are to regain our integrity as a nation, we must seek the impeachment of our president. Read more

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Going Green in Ohio

The key green slogan is: Think Globally — Act Locally. It is imperative that Ohio go green, not only for the good of our small planet but to revitalize the Buckeye State economy. As Governor, I would set an immediate goal to have 20% of all energy be green energy within my first term. This would not be difficult to do.

With research institutions like Battelle which have the capacity to produce green technology, and with our world-class universities and colleges, we could move easily away from fossil fuel to alternative energy. Last year I wrote an article concerning a local inventor who had already developed a fuel that can replace gasoline gallon for gallon.

With recent technological breakthroughs, the breezes that blow along Lake Erie are powerful enough to create commercial turbine power. The city of Bowling Green already has two utility-scale windmill turbines. A flood of inexpensive wind-driven electricity would be created under my administration. We have few alternatives. We can continue to invade oil-rich middle eastern nations under the pretense of bringing them democracy. But these last desperate fossil fuel wars will only bankrupt our nation. Read more

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Blackwell, White Supremacy and the CNP

The biggest story in this year’s gubernatorial election should not be that the FBI is investigating James Petro, but Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s relationship with the far right Council on National Policy.

The CNP is a highly secretive reactionary group with fascistic tendencies and ties to racists and homophobes. The article that I wrote for the freepress.org website with senior editor Harvey Wasserman captures the shadowy world of the CNP. Ken Blackwell is perhaps the most unfit candidate ever to run for the governorship in Ohio history.

His ties to Rev. Rod Parsley and the so-called Patriot Pastors put the majority of Ohioans at risk from a small religious minority that practices bigotry. While Ken Blackwell runs commercials attacking Jim Petro for contract-steering, Ohio newspapers have documented that Blackwell does the same. Blackwell believes that President Bush is above the law and should have the right to spy on American citizens without warrant, wage an illegal war in Iraq and torture in the name of our country.

If you wonder where Blackwell, who suppressed the Democratic votes in the major urban centers in Ohio, by making it difficult to register to vote — remember his requirement that no one could register unless it was on 80 bond white unwaxed paper — gets his ideas, just google the Council on National Policy. The real story in this election is the attempt by these right-wing zealots to hijack our state. What we really need is universal health care, a living wage, less tax breaks for millionaires, more money for our schools and to keep the Ohio National Guard in Ohio instead of fighting an illegal an unjust war ordered by the worst president in U.S. history.

For more, read my article, Why Did J. Kenneth Blackwell seek, then hide, his association with super-rich extremists and e-voting magnates?

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ACTION ALERT: Fitrakis Urges Pressure on Boards of Elections to Issue Voter IDs

Bob Fitrakis, independent candidate for governor, spoke in suburban Columbus to the progressive group Blue Dublin on February 23 on the issue of voting concerns and legislation on election reform.

He recounted how tactics employed by J. Kenneth Blackwell, who served the dual role of Ohio Secretary of State and OH Co-Chair Bush/Cheney ’04, played a significant role in suppressing the democratic vote in Ohio during the ’04 and ’05 elections.

Fitrakis pointed to Lucas County as an example of how Blackwell and the GOP cronyism handed leadership positions to the Noes in running elections in Lucas County. Lucas County’s election was so mismanaged that Blackwell was forced to fire his subordinates at the board of elections and issue a scathing report on how the election in Lucas County was run.

Fitrakis termed recent GOP legislation, HB 3, as the equivalent to modern day “Jim Crow” tactics meant to further suppress the democratic base voters. He wondered why the Democratic party wasn’t circulating petitions to challenge the suppressive law, which he said could have a devastating effect on democratic base voters in the midterm elections.

Fitrakis urged citizens to place pressure on Boards of Elections to issue PHOTO VOTER IDS to the poor, and at nursing homes and college campuses, so that voters disenfranchised in the past will be able to cast their votes in November. Read more

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