News: "The vote count was not conducted by state elections officials, but by the private company that sold Georgia the voting machines in the first place, under a strict trade-secrecy contract that made it not only difficult but actually illegal - on pain of stiff criminal penalties - for the state to touch the equipment or examine the proprietary software to ensure the machines worked properly."

BlackBoxVoting.org

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "What we have here is a form of looting"

FirstEnergy customers lose chance to save billions in electricity costs: "The office charged with protecting Ohio utility consumers has destroyed a closely guarded consultant's report that might have saved billions of dollars for customers in FirstEnergy electric territory."

Another day, another impending war, another uranium trading lie. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | CIA and Pentagon split over uranium intrigue

News: "[T]wo out of three genetically modified crops in the tests may damage the environment."

washingtonpost.com: Spending On Iraq Sets Off Gold Rush Dyncorp mercs get $20,000 per month. Compare that to US military pay.

YellowTimes.org - ''Our newest savior: General Wesley Clark'': The Washington Post reported that during the Kosovo bombing campaign, Clark "would rise out of his seat and slap the table. 'I've got to get the maximum violence out of this campaign -- now!''"

Two years after the US invasion, Afghanis facing unprecedented terror and abuse (by Zafar Bangash) - Media Monitors Network (MMN)
: "A joke making the rounds of Kabul's cafes these days goes something like this: 'What is worse than being ruled by the Taliban? Being liberated by the Americans!'"

Moscow prepared to stage pre-emptive strikes - www.smh.com.au: "the Kremlin has made it clear it is prepared to use pre-emptive strikes against perceived threats and will continue to mobilise Russia's vast nuclear arsenal to deter a new generation of low-level instability on its borders. "

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Theatre of war: "More than 320 US troops have died since America invaded Iraq, but hundreds more have been injured in the line of duty, many so seriously that they will be disabled for life....Major Gordon Olsen is an orthopaedic specialist.... 'Before I came over, watching the news I was rah-rah and here we go,' he says. 'Now I am just thinking, this needs to stop and go away. When talking to my wife at home, you know, people just hear about a few casualties a day and it doesn't sound like a big deal. But when you see a 19-year-old kid with his leg barely hanging on, that one alone is a big deal.' "

Many soldiers, same letter / Front Page -The Olympian: "'When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' '"

Study refutes Limbaugh's take on media: "Love him or hate him, he was wrong"

Philly.com - "The Region's Home Page": SOP for the GOP "Serious questions arise when the Democratic mayor of the fifth-largest city in the country discovers, just weeks before a close election, that senior Bush administration officials approved a plan to bug his office"

US 'empire' and its limits | csmonitor.com: "Since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, the US has deposed five regimes - roughly one every three years, notes Andrew Krepinevich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 'We are in the business of regime change,' he says."

Ex-EPA Officials Question Clean Air Suits (washingtonpost.com): "The utility industry, which contributed $4.8 million to the Bush campaign and other GOP committees in 2000, argued that existing rules have discouraged investment and expansion of energy sources. Under the revised rules announced in August, older plants will not have to install pollution controls"

Bush taps DeWitt for inner circle: "'We're not sure qualities for appointment to the board include being a rich guy, financial supporter and close friend of the president,' said Eric Miller, senior defense investigator for the Project on Government Oversight.
'You need independence on this board. How can you be independent if you're one of the president's largest contributors?' he said."

U.S. May Expand Access To Endangered Species (washingtonpost.com): The best government money can buy. "Safari Club International gave $274,000 to candidates during the 2000 election cycle, 86 percent of it to Republicans. It also spent $5,445 printing bumper stickers for the Bush presidential campaign. Monson has made a variety of contributions himself, including $1,000 to the Bush for President campaign. "

KR Washington Bureau | 10/10/2003 | Leak of CIA officers leaves trail of damage: "the leak by Bush administration officials of that CIA officer's identity may have damaged U.S. national security to a much greater extent than generally realized"

Forbes.com: Princeton student sued over paper on CD copying Use the shift key, go to jail.