Elections

Obama Must Strongly and Unequivocally Condemn the Coup in Honduras
By Roberto Lovato | AlterNet

Viewed from a distance, the streets of Honduras look, smell and sound like those of Iran: Expressions of popular anger- burning vehicles, large marches and calls for justice in a non-English language - aimed at a constitutional violation of the people's will (the coup took place on the eve of a poll of voters asking if the President's term should be extended); protests repressed by a small, but powerful elite backed by military force; those holding power trying to cut off communications in and out of the country.

These and other similarities between the political situation in Iran and the situation in Honduras, where military and economic and political elites ousted democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya in a military coup condemned around the world, are obvious.

But when viewed from the closer physical (Miami is just 800 miles from Honduras) and historical proximity of the United States, the differences between Iran and Honduras are marked and clear in important ways: the M-16's pointing at this very moment at the thousands of peaceful protesters are paid for with U.S. tax dollars and still carry a "Made in America" label; the military airplane in which they kidnapped and exiled President Zelaya was purchased with the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid the Honduran government has been the benefactor of since the Cold War military build-up that began in 1980's; the leader of the coup, General Romeo Vasquez, and many other military leaders repressing the populace received "counterinsurgency" training at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the infamous "School of the Americas," responsible for training those who perpetrated the greatest atrocities in the Americas.

Denounce the Coup, End US Military Aid and Close the SOA | Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) joins with the international community in denunciation of the military coup in Honduras.

We join with all who call for an immediate end to the violence and repression against the people of Honduras who are resisting. We express our solidarity with the Honduran trade unions and all democratic forces waging a heroic defense of democracy against the military coup.

We call on the U.S. government - the White House, State Department and Members of Congress - to denounce unambiguously the coup and call for the immediate return of the democratically elected President of Honduras, withhold recognition of the coup leaders, and cut all military aid until democracy is restored. We urge all to contact their Member of Congress, the U.S. State Department and White House to convey this message.

Undo the Coup
By Amy Goodman | Truthdig

The first coup d’etat in Central America in more than a quarter-century occurred last Sunday in Honduras. Honduran soldiers roused democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya from his bed and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. The coup, led by the Honduran Gen. Romeo Vasquez, has been condemned by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and all of Honduras’ immediate national neighbors. Mass protests have erupted on the streets of Honduras, with reports that elements in the military loyal to Zelaya are rebelling against the coup.

The United States has a long history of domination in the hemisphere. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can chart a new course, away from the dark days of military dictatorship, repression and murder. Obama indicated such a direction when he spoke in April at the Summit of the Americas: “[A]t times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations.”

Two who know well the history of dictated U.S. terms are Dr. Juan Almendares, a medical doctor and award-winning human rights activist in Honduras, and the American clergyman Father Roy Bourgeois, a priest who for years has fought to close the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Ga. Both men link the coup in Honduras to the SOA.

The SOA, renamed in 2000 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), is the U.S. military facility that trains Latin American soldiers. The SOA has trained more than 60,000 soldiers, many of whom have returned home and committed human rights abuses, torture, extrajudicial execution and massacres. Read more.

Urgent Request To Support Restoration Of Honduran President Zelaya | By Danny Glover | BlackCommentator.com

Please join me in solidarity with the people of Honduras to determine their own future.

I urge all to support the citizens of Honduras in their demand that President Manuel Zelaya be restored immediately to his constitutionally elected post and authority as President of Honduras. It is imperative that citizens across the United States write and call upon President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to quickly execute every available influence to ensure that President Zelaya is safely returned to his post.

Your voices are urgently needed to encourage our government to exercise its influence to ensure that the Ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua who have been violently kidnapped are not harmed and are immediately safely returned.

Reporting From Honduras: Hondurans Call Out for Help from the International Community
by Medea Benjamin | OpEd News

Our emergency international delegation to Honduras, organized from the United States by CODEPINK, Global Exchange and Non-Violence International, began its fact-finding mission in the wake of the June 28 coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.

We started out with a briefing by the Network of Sustainable Development (Red de Desarrollo Sostenible, a 15-year-old organization devoted to the exchange of information about sustainable development. It has now become a center for exchanging information about the coup. Using blogspot, facebook, twitter, myspace, flickr and youtube, the Network's network is abuzz with hour-by-hour accounts of political developments. Their communication system has become a critical way for Honduras to get information, since the coup leaders have muzzled the press.

The Network has a history of being objective and staying above politics, but the staff is outraged by the coup. "This was just over the top," said National Coordinator Raquel Isaura, who is being targeted by the right for some anti-coup internet messages posted under her name. "A military coup in this day and age must be condemned by all sectors of civil society." Read more.

Jeb Bush is testing the waters.

Was Iran's Election Stolen?
By Mark Weisbrot | Post Global:Washington Post | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

Since the Iranian presidential election of June 12, allegations that the announced winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was stolen have played an important role in the demonstrations, political conflict, and media reporting on events there. Some say it does not matter whether the elections were stolen because the government has responded to peaceful protests with violence and arrests. These actions are indeed abhorrent and inexcusable, and the world's outrage is justified. So, too, is the widespread concern for the civil liberties of Iranians who have chosen to exercise their rights to peacefully protest.

At the same time, the issue of whether the election was stolen will remain relevant, both to our understanding of the situation and to U.S.-Iranian relations, for reasons explained below. It is therefore worth looking at whether this allegation is plausible.

According to the official election results, the incumbent president Ahmadinejad won the election by a margin of 63 percent to 34 percent for his main competitor, Mir Hossein Mousavi. This is a difference of approximately 11.3 million votes. Any claim of victory for Mousavi must therefore contain some logically coherent story of how at least 5.65 million votes (one half of the 11.3 million margin) might have been stolen. Read more.

A Matter of Trust: Mexico's July 5 Legislative Elections
A Three Part Series Part 1
By Michael Collins and Kenneth Thomas

"Se requiere que las ciudadanos no estén ausentes ante una clase política que, desde el punto de vista ciudadano, no ha respondido y claramente ha fallado," dijo el Presidente de la República. Sociedad civil confronta a los poderes de la Unión El Universal, June 25, 2009

Translation: "It is necessary that the citizens not be seated behind a political class which, from the citizen’s point of view, clearly has failed," said the President of the Republic. (President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon El Universal, June 25, 2009)

Every once in a while, a politician tells the unvarnished truth. It's difficult to recall the last time it happened. Outgoing president Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1961 warning of the dangers of the U.S. military-industrial complex comes to mind. Ike told the truth but too late to matter since he was leaving power.

President Calderon is just three years into his six year term as President of Mexico.

Just two days prior to Calderon's statement, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (ALMO), Calderon's opponent in the bitterly contested 2006 presidential election, had filed a complaint against the media conglomerate owned television network, Televisa. Obrador argued that Televisa has shown extraordinary bias against his party, the PRD. Candidates are entitled to make complaints about biased coverage to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) created as part of Mexico's 1990 election reform law.

WASHINGTON, DC (July 2, 2009) – Two of the = nation’s leading critics of alleged “selective prosecutions” by the Bush = Department of Justice to prevent the election of Democrats will appear on today’s = edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio to discuss recent legal developments -- = and last Friday’s unprecedented conference on the topic here at the = National Press Club. 

Iowa & Wisconsin Green Parties Sue Davenport, Iowa
By Ronald Hardy | Green Party Watch

Last year two Wisconsin Greens went to Iowa to help Iowa Greens get Cynthia McKinney on the ballot. They hit Iowa City, and several other cities, before going to Davenport, IA for the Bix Street Fest, a large event with lots of people - ideal for gathering signatures. Event organizers DavenportOne confronted the petitioners and tried to force them to leave the streets of Davenport. They called the police.

The ACLU of Iowa took up the case and now the Green Party of the United States, The Wisconsin Greens and the Green Party of Iowa are suing Davenport for violating their first amendment rights to petition." Read more.

Commentary: U.S. dollars could kill Iran's protest movement
By Hamid Dabashi | CNN

On a number of occasions and in perfectly pitched and calibrated statements, President Obama has expressed his unequivocal support for the civil rights movement in Iran without appearing to interfere in Iranian domestic affairs.

This has been particularly admirable given the pressure that is coming his way from a U.S. Congress that -- up until the night before the Iranian presidential election -- was discussing even more severe economic sanctions on Iran, which would have hurt precisely the young men and women the legislators now seem too eager to support.

Obama can help this budding seed of hope for civil liberties even more emphatically by altogether cutting the budget "to promote democracy in Iran," evidently channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development. Ken Dilanian of USA Today reports, "the Obama administration is moving forward with plans to fund groups that support Iranian dissidents."

This financial aid is not only a waste of taxpayer money under these severe economic circumstances, but is in fact the surest way to kill that inborn and grassroots movement. Read more.

First, some background from Mark Crispin Miller:

In April of 2006, in California's 50th District (including San Diego), Francine Busby was the Democratic candidate in a special Congressional election to replace Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Republican incumbent who'd been nailed for bribery, mail fraud and some other crimes.

Busby faced off against Brian Bilbray, a moderate Republican who took a very hard line on illegal immigration, which earned him the support of local Minutemen and other xenophobic elements in San Diego.

By David Swanson

Former governor of Alabama and political prisoner Don Siegelman has filed a motion (PDF) for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.

Here are the highlights:

ISSUE I. THE GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO PRODUCE EXCULPATORY AND IMPEACHING INFORMATION IN ITS POSSESSION AS TO KEY WITNESSES AND CORRECT FALSE OR MISLEADING TESTIMONY DURING TRIAL VIOLATED SIEGELMAN’S RIGHTS UNDER THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT FAILED TO COMPLY WITH ITS OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE JENCKS ACT.

The detailed allegations here are worse than the heading sounds. Siegelman accuses the government of shaping the testimony of a key witness.

Westside Progressives Picnic

Join Marcy Winograd & Friends for a picnic in the park tomorrow noon to 4 PM, where Marcy will be a featured speaker and will talk about the economy and health care. Hear the latest on the congressional campaign and how you can get involved right now. Map, RSVP, & More.

The Future of the Voting Rights Act
Sponsored by the New America Foundation and FairVote

We also will be webcasting this live, so people who are not in the Washington DC area can still watch it live on the web by going to New America's website at www.newamerica.net.

On June 22, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its much-anticipated voting rights ruling in the NAMUDNO case (Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder). Many long-time experts are sifting through the decision to understand the broad implications for the future of voting rights protections and minority representation in the United States.

In addition, ongoing demographic shifts in our national mosaic are creating more situations where alternatives to single-seat districts, including proportional voting methods, may be necessary to ensure diverse representation. This is an opportune time to renew the national conversation about the future of voting rights.

Iranian Cleric Urges Executing Some Protesters
Cleric's call for executing some protesters signals harsh new turn in Iran
By William J. Kole, Associated Press Writer | ABCNews

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

A senior cleric on Friday urged Iran's protest leaders to be punished "without mercy" and said some should face execution — harsh calls that signal a nasty new turn in the regime's crackdown on demonstrators two weeks after its disputed election.

Hard-liners have ordered long sentences and hangings before, and some fear those awaiting trial by a judiciary whose verdicts reflect the will of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the most severe punishments the Islamic system can dish out.

"Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution," Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a ranking cleric, said in a nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University.

Khatami said those who disturbed the peace and destroyed public property were "at war with God" and should be "dealt with without mercy." Read more.

By David Swanson

Embedded below is a stunning video. The Bush-Cheney-Rove Justice Department prosecuted 600 elected officials plus 2,500 collateral cases (children, elderly parents, children of defense lawyers, etc), and 85 percent of the officials were Democrats. And -- this is something the filmmaker came to understand after producing this film -- most of the rest were moderate Republicans, not Federalist Society Republicans.

The prosecutions were concentrated in presidential election swing states, as were the U.S. attorney firings.

The cases overwhelmingly -- almost all of them -- went to the small number of judges who had been appointed by George W. Bush.

All the cases that resulted in short prison terms included probation periods until after the next election.

Top fundraisers and staff of presidential candidates Clinton, Edwards, and Obama were indicted.

By David Swanson

Did you know the United States has in recent years prosecuted hundreds of people for political reasons? This is a crime, or rather a crime wave, that has thus far been addressed primarily by ignoring it. You can read a lot about it from bloggers like Larisa Alexandrovna or Scott Horton. But you won't hear the president mention it on TV.