How do you create fewer terrorists? Give them something to live for....

This is one of those articles I stumble across now and again that just sort of hits me at the right time. Maybe it's crazy, but I can't help thinking of the vast number of terrorists that the U.S. has created since Operation Iraqi Liberation and, well, maybe we oughta start thinking about how to slow production...

On the importance of the suggested changes to the Voting Rights Act...

The GOP is getting ready to eliminate the VRA in anticipation of the 2008 elections. Having learned a lesson or two from the fradulant challenges they made in the 2004 elections, the GOP is positioning itself to continue those illegal tactics by getting rid of the Voting Rights Act. While southern states have some reason to feel picked on by the law, the answer isn't to abolish the act but to provide the same protections to voters in all states. Greg Palast, who covered the 2004 elections for the BBC and did a solid job of digging into the nuts and bolts of what happened, has a great piece on this and what it will portends for the next major election.

RFK Jr's Rolling Stone article on the 2004 election

I've been trying desperately to put this election behind me, but can't get the cliché about "those forgetting history are doomed to repeat it" out of my head. I'm not a hardcore conspiracy theorist, but I'm thinking that you don't really need to be to have a high level of confidence that there was an unprecedented amount of shenanigans going on during the 2004 presidential election, and that the guy who really lost still lives on Pennsylvania Avenue. RFK Jr's article does a nice job of putting the whole enchilada on the table to see...

Can you win a war on an emotional reaction?

Old information here, but worth remembering during the debate that is sure to develop from now until the fall elections. George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and a Senior Fellow of the Rockridge Institute, wrote this piece a while ago - an oldie but a goodie :)

Barack Obama @ Take Back America

What I enjoy about Obama is that he doesn't play on fear, demonize those he disagrees with or patronize the electorate... He is, in my mind, one of the great American orators of our time... well worth the download time, availble right here

More on 9/11 from Joshua Holland on AlterNet

I'm not convinced that the facts surrounding the 9/11 attacks have ever been revealed. My personal opinion is that there was a lot more ineptitude than malice behind the intelligence communities investigations prior to the attacks, but with an administration so bent on secrecy, I've often wondered. The NeoCons position paper written long before Bush II took office really lays out the administrations response very well, and they couldn't have asked for a better catalyst for the changes they've made than 9/11. Still, that ain't evidence. Here's a good article from Joshua, along with some good comments at the bottom, available on AlterNet. I'm not saying I know anything more, but it is interesting to keep track of the story after it moves off the front page...