You Won, Now What?

Teagan Goddard, who publishes the invaluable Political Wire and Blogscan, also co-authored You Won Now What? How Americans Can Make Democracy Work from City Hall to the White House, a book that becomes especially relevant with elections almost here.

“Two experienced political writers examine how government can be run effectively — by examining failures both well known and obscure. Taegan D. Goddard and Christopher Riback’s YOU WON - NOW WHAT? is part political anecdote, part handbook for anyone looking to separate the soundbite from the message in the upcoming campaign season.”

The book’s web site.

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The noxious PATRIOT act

Passd during our steady march to war, the PATRIOT act stomps on the Constitution. These links detail just how assaultive of our rights it is.

EFF Watch what you Google!

CDT (pdf) Allows law enforcement agencies to search homes and offices without notifying the owner right away. Not limited to terrorism cases.

CCR Confers vast and unchecked powers to the executive branch.

ACLU The USA PATRIOT Act also allows for detention and deportation of individuals who provide lawful assistance to groups that are not designated as terrorist organizations. It then requires the immigrant to prove a negative: that he did not know, and should not have known, that his assistance would further terrorist activity.

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Chechen warlord warns Russia to expect ‘maximum damage’

Chechnya’s leading rebel warlord claimed responsibility yesterday for the hostage siege at a Moscow theatre while Russian legislators moved to curb news coverage of antiterrorist operations, including the war in Chechnya.

“The next time, those who come won’t make any demands, won’t take hostages,” Mr. Basayev said on the Chechen Web site. Their “main goal will be destroying the enemy and exacting maximum damage.”

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Stand Down

This “Left-Right blog opposing a war in Iraq” is only a few days old and it already has a high level of intelligent postings about why an Iraq war is a terrible idea. What’s more, the thirty or so blogmasters posting to it (including this one) come from all over the political spectrum - Left, Right, and Libertarian.

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California is seriously broke

The winner of Tuesday’s election will have barely two months to propose at least $10 billion in budget cuts, tax increases and other “revenue enhancements” — and possibly as much as $20 billion, an amount equivalent to one-fifth of the $98.9-billion state budget for the current fiscal year, government and private experts predict.

“I really don’t know how they’re going to deal with it,” said Ted Gibson, the former chief economist of California, who foresees a $20-billion budget hole for 2003-04 and no easy solution in sight. “To solve it all at once would require both massive tax increases and massive spending cuts that I don’t think the system is prepared to handle.”

Los Angeles County is facing equally serious financial problems, with the imminent threat of major hospitals being closed because the County can’t afford them.

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This is not a joke, repeat not a joke

Russia to monitor American elections

The monitors are charged with assessing whether next Tuesday’s mid-term elections in Florida meet international standards of democracy “with a focus on evaluation of the actions the authorities have undertaken to remedy the problems that were observed during the 2000 elections.”

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This should certainly advance the cause of peace

Sharon asks Netanyahu to be foreign minister

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Scientists find herbicide causes frog sex change

One of the world’s most popular weedkillers, atrazine, is common in water and could be having a sex-change effect on amphibians.

American scientists have discovered a strong link between atrazine and hermaphrodite tendencies observed in wild leopard frogs across the U.S. Midwest.

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Follow the money

Court slams Laredo National Bank
 
The attack by Laredo National Bank, its president Gary Jacobs, and the notorious Hank family empire of Mexico (subject of Federal Reserve Board actions regarding the Laredo bank) against press freedom and against various journalists has been one of the stories Narco News has covered extensively.

On October 25th, US Court Magistrate Judge Nancy A. Vechiarelli DENIED all motions by Laredo National Bank to compell professor Donald Schulz to turn over information to the Bank. Schulz has been accused by the bank of leaking US government documents that may implicate the bank and the Hank family in alleged money laundering and narco-trafficking.

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