'We've won' says Bush camp

By Mark Sage, PA News, in New York
03 November 2004
George Bush has won the state of Ohio and with it re-election as
President of the United States, his chief of staff Andrew Card said
today.

But Mr Bush decided not to make a victory speech because his
Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry is refusing to concede
defeat.

Republicans retain their Senate majority

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
03 November 2004

The Republicans retained their majority in the Senate last night,
capturing three previously Democratic seats in the South, and fending
off a strong challenge from the Democrats in Oklahoma.

The main consolation on a tough night on the Congressional front for
the Democrats was a sweeping victory for the rising party star Barack
Obama, often talked of as a future president, in Illinois.

New Mexico set for another close call

Candidates look to south-west for battleground that could make all the
difference, writes Dan Glaister in Albuquerque

Wednesday November 3, 2004

With the presidential election poised on a knife-edge, both camps have
turned their attention not only to the key mid-western battlegrounds
but also to the south-western states of the US. Colorado, Nevada and
even Arizona have been too close to call during the final stages of
the campaign.

But no state is closer in the south-west, and possibly in the nation,
than New Mexico. Although Florida took all the glory - or the
ignominy, depending on your perspective - in 2000, New Mexico recorded
the closest vote, with Gore taking the state by just 366 votes. Four
years on and the stakes are even higher, as both campaigns pitch in
resources and personalities to the battle. The state offers only five
electoral college votes, but as both sides are keenly aware, five
votes could make all the difference

Faith in America

By PAUL KRUGMAN
It's already clear that voters around the country have refused to give
in to cynicism and spin.

Passion and patience of early voters inspires international observers

Oliver Burkeman in Miami
Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

Justice Bekebeke is no stranger to long lines of voters at polling
stations, angrily committed to making their vote count.

He just never thought he would see it in Florida. "It is something
phenomenal," the chief elections officer for South Africa's northern
cape said yesterday, on a sweltering morning in downtown Miami, as the
last of the early voters queued for up to three hours.

Thousands of lawyers lined up to turn defeat into victory

Oliver Burkeman in Miami
Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

Teams of Democratic and Republican lawyers were poised to start
launching legal challenges in Florida and elsewhere from the moment
the polls open today, without waiting until the close of voting to
start disputing procedures at individual polling stations.

The Democrats, convinced that more vigorous challenges might have
swung the result in 2000, claim to have 10,000 lawyers on standby
around the country, ready to be deployed wherever the need arises.
They reputedly have 1,000 in Florida alone, including Janet Reno, Bill
Clinton's former attorney general.

The Manchurian cover-up

Revelations that the Carlyle Group was involved in a secret deal to
profit from Iraq's debt have vanished under a spell of silence

Naomi Klein
Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

Less than 24 hours after it was disclosed that former secretary of
state James Baker and the Carlyle Group were involved in a secret deal
to profit from Iraq's debt to Kuwait, NBC was reporting that the deal
was "dead". At The Nation magazine, which broke the story that was
then carried on these pages, we started to get congratulatory calls.

They were commending us for costing the Carlyle Group $1bn, the sum
the company would have received in an investment from the government
of Kuwait in exchange for helping to extract $27bn of unpaid debts
from Iraq.

Oil traders speculate on Kerry victory

Charlotte Moore
Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

Oil prices fell sharply on the world's energy markets yesterday as
dealers speculated that John Kerry was on course for a surprise win in
America's knife-edge election.

With the Democratic challenger for the White House seen as more likely
to conserve dwindling oil stocks, the price of crude dropped $2 before
closing in New York $1.63 down at $50.13 a barrel.

This is not a vote about ideas. It comes down to the verdict of a
divided nation on one man

Never mind arguments about gays or guns, God or abortion - Bush is the
only real issue. Gary Younge reflects on the lessons learned on his
five-week journey across America in the run-up to today's election.

Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

Criticisms of Americans for being insular, while often valid, usually
fail to grasp the sheer scale of the place. Texas, the country's
second largest state, is the size of Germany, Italy and Denmark
combined; its population would fill Switzerland, Portugal and Ireland.
Those who accuse Americans of being parochial must first concede that
America is a huge parish.

New England, where I started my journey, and west Texas, where I ended
it five weeks later, could be in two entirely different nations. Not
only had the topography, climate and architecture radically altered,
but so had the people and their attitudes towards everything from
religion and government to taxes and guns.

The Bush baiters

They persuade loyal Republicans to accept a nuclear dump in their
backyards and to sign up their children for war against North Korea.
Professional ironists the Yes Men tell Oliver Burkeman that, in Bush's
America, people will believe anything

Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

For months leading up to today's election, George Bush and his
campaign team have been criss-crossing the US in a fleet of red, white
and blue buses bearing the words "A Safer World - A More Hopeful
America", followed close behind by several coachloads of journalists.
Amid the mayhem that attends the motorcade, few people seem to have
noticed anything odd about the occasional appearance of another,
unauthorised bus, bedecked with near-identical patriotic graphics and
a huge photograph of the president's grinning face.

The somewhat defensive slogan "I'm telling the truth!" should probably
have rung alarm bells. So should the fact that the zealous campaigners
on board claimed to represent a pressure group called Yes Bush Can.
Mainly, though, alarm bells did not ring - which is why, over recent
weeks, numerous loyal Republicans have happily signed a pledge in
which, among other things, they agreed to host a permanent nuclear
waste storage facility in their neighbourhood, promised not to have
sex before marriage, and specified which branch of the military they
would prefer their children to join to fight America's forthcoming war
against North Korea.

"That's what's amazing about the discourse in this country," says Mike
Bonnano, one of the two weapons-grade ironists behind Yes Bush Can.
"People are so used to complete absurdity that nothing surprises them
any more."

How To Multiply Your Vote By 50 Or Even 100 Times...

by couldbeanyone
Sun Oct 31st, 2004 at 16:02:38 GMT

You don't have to live in a battleground state to make all-important
get-out-the-vote calls. You can do it from wherever you live, starting
now. Here's how...

Charges of Dirty Tricks, Fraud and Voter Suppression Already Flying in
Several States

By KATE ZERNIKE and WILLIAM YARDLEY
Elections officials say that charges of voter intimidation and voter
fraud are flying more furiously than anyone can remember in recent
elections.

Michael Moore's video cameras poised to focus on dirty tricks

Movie maker declares war on intimidation

Oliver Burkeman
Monday November 1, 2004
The Guardian

The filmmaker Michael Moore has announced a large-scale effort to
combat dirty tricks during tomorrow's US election by stationing
hundreds of people with video cameras outside polling stations.

"I'm putting those who intend to suppress the vote on notice: voter
intimidation and suppression will not be tolerated," Mr Moore said in
a statement, wading into a controversy in which Democrats accuse
Republicans of planning to reduce turnout, especially among ethnic
minorities, by employing thousands of people to stop voters at the
polls and challenge the validity of their registrations.

States Are Battling Against Wal-Mart Over Health Care

By REED ABELSON
Wal-Mart is under attack for what critics see as a miserly approach to
employee health care.

Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls

Students say they were conned into registering twice

Greg Palast in New York
Sunday October 31, 2004
The Observer

An Observer investigation in the United States has uncovered
widespread allegations of electoral abuse, many of them going
uninvestigated despite complaints of what would appear to be criminal
attempts to manipulate voter lists.

The allegations, which come just two days before Americans go to the
polls in one of the most tightly contested elections in a generation,
threaten to plunge Tuesday's count into a legal minefield and
overshadow even the elections of 2000.

G.O.P. to the Poor: Don't Vote

The unfortunate impulse to suppress voting in poor and minority
neighborhoods is now afflicting some parts of the Republican Party.

Kerry Has One-Point Lead Over Bush - Reuters Poll

Sat Oct 30, 2004 07:01 AM ET

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry moved into a
one-point lead over President Bush three days before the presidential
election, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

Kerry led Bush 47-46 percent, well within the margin of error, in the
latest three-day national tracking poll. Bush and Kerry were tied at
47 percent on Friday.

Bush campaign hurt by missing arms and Halliburton inquiry

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
30 October 2004

The superheated US election campaign enters its final weekend with
Democrats pounding George Bush on the missing 380 tons of explosives
in Iraq, and over a potentially embarrassing FBI inquiry into the
controversial oil services group Halliburton ­ not to mention the
sudden intervention last night of Osama bin Laden.

Pentagon suppresses details of civilian casualties, says expert

By Raymond Whitaker
31 October 2004
The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq,
contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified,
according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported
last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.

"Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time,
General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military
does collect casualty figures in Iraq," said Professor Richard
Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. "But
since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff,
the figures have been kept secret."

Wall Street's nightmare: a hung presidency

Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
Sunday October 31, 2004
The Observer

Legal deadlock between George Bush and John Kerry after this week's
presidential poll would unleash turmoil on the US stock markets,
analysts are warning.

With armies of lawyers ready to dispute the result in closely fought
states, investors fear a repeat of 2000, when the S&P 500 index lost
more than 5 per cent of its value between polling day and 13 December,
when Al Gore finally conceded defeat.

How the bloggers have driven the news agenda

Traditional media have been left trailing by the internet, reports
David Usborne

31 October 2004
In the last days of this American election marathon, all the usual
media rituals are playing out. The presidential candidates are picking
and choosing between television shows to make their final appeals to
voters while newspapers across the land are making their traditional,
tautly reasoned endorsements.

So much for the familiar, however. When it is all over, editors and
reporters will finally have a moment to reflect on everything that was
different about this presidential campaign. What they are likely to
conclude is this: the traditional outlets, whether it is CBS News or
the New York Times, mattered less. New forces nudged voters'
sympathies and even drove the traditional news agenda.

It's Not Just Al Qaqaa

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Al Qaqaa is hardly the only tale of incompetence and mendacity to
break to the surface in the last few days.

Republicans are accused of scaring off voters as Bush looks for
converts in Ohio

By Rupert Cornwell in Youngstown, Ohio
28 October 2004
As George Bush brought his campaign for the "discerning Democrat" to
Ohio yesterday, a dispute grew fiercer still over alleged voter fraud
and intimidation on polling day, and over thousands of possibly
decisive provisional ballots, that will only be certified after the
rest of the vote has been counted.

After an early morning stop in neighbouring Pennsylvania, the
President arrived in Youngstown, a classic rustbelt town that is
normally a Democratic stronghold. But buoyed by the defection to his
cause of the city's Democratic mayor, Mr Bush was hoping to garner
extra votes that could prove decisive in arguably the most contested
of battleground states.

The wolf at the door

Oct 28th 2004
From The Economist print edition

MOST economists, and this newspaper, have been fretting about
America's huge current-account deficit and predicting the dollar's
sharp decline for years. The trouble with crying wolf too often is
that people stop believing you. After slipping 14% in broad
trade-weighted terms since 2002, the dollar had stabilised this year,
even as the current-account deficit continued to grow. This has
encouraged some economists to offer theories explaining why America's
current-account deficit does not matter and why the dollar need not
fall further. But the dollar has now started to slide again: this week
it hit $1.28 against the euro, within a whisker of its all-time low of
$1.29. Trust us, the wolf is real.

Bush has fallen victim to his own hubris

In the end, US voters will not be frightened into becoming a nation
that disdains decency

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday October 28, 2004
The Guardian

The unmaking of the president 2004 began on September 11 2001. By
September 10, George Bush's poll numbers had reached 50%, the lowest
of any president at that early point in his tenure. Having lost the
popular majority in the 2000 election and being delivered the
presidency by a five-to-four Supreme Court decision, Bush operated as
though he had triumphed with a full-throated mandate.

If Bush loses...

Oct 28th 2004
From The Economist print edition
Expect a few defenestrations in the Republican Party, but not a
bloodbath

IN THE wake of George Bush senior's defeat in 1992, the Republican
Party had a collective nervous breakdown. One of the many bizarre
manifestations of the breakdown took place at the Heritage Foundation:
a group of young conservatives filled a hall with friends before
marching in carrying a plastic head of the former president on a
plate. The plate was covered with blood-coloured crêpe paper—and the
young activists were almost as jubilant as the triumphant Clintonites
down in Little Rock.

Tugging at the grass roots

Oct 28th 2004
From The Economist Global Agenda
With less than a week to go until election day, the race between
George Bush and John Kerry is tied. All eyes are on their parties'
efforts to get out the vote—and the legal shenanigans that may ensue

WITH the American presidential campaign now in its final week,
political writers are struggling to find synonyms for "dead heat". The
race is indeed tied, with George Bush having a statistically
insignificant lead over John Kerry in a statistically insignificant
majority of polls. Both candidates and their surrogates are furiously
racing from swing state to swing state trying to push a few more
voters into their column.

In the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the final week, every piece of
news is seen in terms of how it will affect the election. Mr Kerry
jumped on a report that around 350 tonnes of high explosive have gone
missing in Iraq, highlighting it as another example of Mr Bush's poor
management of the war; the Bush campaign responded that Mr Kerry has
no principles, only responses to the day's headlines. The news that
the Supreme Court's chief justice, William Rehnquist, was being
treated for thyroid cancer immediately got both sides talking about
the importance of the court's expected vacancies in the next
presidential term. Even the baseball World Series has seen through the
prism of the campaign. In it the Boston Red Sox, from Mr Kerry's home
state, decisively beat the St Louis Cardinals from Missouri, a state
in which Mr Bush fancies his chances.

J'accuse

Oct 21st 2004
From The Economist print edition

A searing critique of the Bush administration

FOR over three decades, Seymour Hersh has been a pain in the neck to
American presidents and he is proving no less of one to George Bush.
Mr Hersh's dogged style of investigative journalism has produced
brilliant scoops—he revealed the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, and
this year in the New Yorker he did much to uncover the story of
American torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. As important, his
writing offers a kind of real-time alternative history to the official
version of events. His latest book is a blend of articles from the New
Yorker since the September 11th attacks along with new material. It
makes disturbing reading. Mr Hersh portrays an administration whose
top officials are not just duplicitous—a charge which can be laid
against plenty of their predecessors—but gravely incompetent, blind to
facts they dislike, determined to ignore advice they do not wish to
hear and lamentably ignorant about large chunks of the world.

Oh, Oklahoma!

Welcome to the wacky world of the US Senate elections

Richard Adams
Friday October 29, 2004
The Guardian

There's the candidate who thinks lesbianism is so rife that girls need
escorts into toilets. There's the candidate who accused his opponent
of looking like Saddam Hussein's son. And then there's the candidate
who thinks single mothers should be banned from teaching. Welcome to
the wacky world of the US Senate elections.

Legal fight over voter eligibility begins in Ohio

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday October 27, 2004
The Guardian

Ohio Republicans have challenged the eligibility of 25,000 registered
voters, accusing Democrats of fraud.

Ohio's county election boards are not equipped to handle the huge
caseload. It is likely to balloon further on election day, when the
Republicans will dispatch more than 3,000 volunteers to thousands of
polling stations around the state to challenge voter credentials. And
it might result in the state being a post-election legal battleground.

Parties fear dirty tricks in New Mexico grudge match

By Andrew Gumbel in Las Cruces, New Mexico
27 October 2004

The Democrats say that winning New Mexico in next week's presidential
election is a matter of honour. For many Republicans, it is more like
a grudge match after their tantalisingly narrow defeat by just 366
votes in 2000. Either way, the state that regularly emerges from polls
as the most forgotten is looming large in the battle for the White
House.

New Mexico may control only five votes in the electoral college - a
fraction of what's at stake in battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida
- but it is punching above its weight in money, organisation and
attention from the national parties.

Negligent US forces to blame for massacre of recruits, says Allawi

By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
27 October 2004

Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim Prime Minister, said yesterday that the
gross negligence of American forces had led to the massacre of 49
Iraqi army recruits by insurgents on Sunday.

The vehement criticism from Mr Allawi, who owes his position to
Washington, was an indication of the anger among Iraqis about the
killings.

Karl Rove: America's Mullah

* This election is about Rovism, and the outcome threatens to
transform the U.S. into an ironfisted theocracy.

By Neal Gabler, Neal Gabler, a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center
at USC Annenberg, is author of "Life the Movie: How Entertainment
Conquered Reality."

Even now, after Sen. John F. Kerry handily won his three debates with
President Bush and after most polls show a dead heat, his supporters
seem downbeat. Why? They believe that Karl Rove, Bush's top political
operative, cannot be beaten. Rove the Impaler will do whatever it
takes — anything — to make certain that Bush wins. This isn't just
typical Democratic pessimism. It has been the master narrative of the
2004 presidential campaign in the mainstream media. Attacks on Kerry
come and go — flip-flopper, Swift boats, Massachusetts liberal — but
one constant remains, Rove, and everyone takes it for granted that he
knows how to game the system.

In the deep south, salad comes with fried chicken and race comes with
everything

On the road: In the run-up to polling day, Gary Younge is driving the
2,147 miles from John Kerry's base in Boston, Massachusetts to George
Bush's home town of Midland, Texas. Today he reaches Bill Clinton's
old home state, Arkansas

Wednesday October 27, 2004
The Guardian

Route 65 dips, rises and swings through the Ozark mountains, past rib
shacks offering hickory hams and small stores emblazoned with the
confederate flag. "The past is never dead," wrote Mississippi's famous
son, William Faulkner, of the south. "It's not even past.

Memo Lets CIA Take Detainees Out of Iraq

Practice Is Called Serious Breach of Geneva Conventions
By Dana Priest, Page A01
At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a
confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out
of Iraq for interrogation -- a practice that international legal
specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.

Suppressing the overseas vote

Record numbers of Americans abroad have registered, but bureaucratic
snafus may prevent many from actually voting, writes Alix Christie

Monday October 25, 2004

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat is pumped. Two weeks ago, sitting in an
internet cafe on Munich's Odeonplatz, the software marketer who
crafted a hugely successful voter registration website, pulls up
numbers that show a remarkable spike in Americans overseas mobilising
to defeat George W Bush. Between her site and another out of Hong
Kong, Democrats have registered 140,000 new voters, 40% of them from
swing states - and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Americans
abroad, roused to a boiling fury by a Bush doctrine that has smeared
America's good name across the globe, are looking like the "silent
swing vote" in several key battleground states. Overseas registration
for both parties is up by 400% over 2000; estimates put the tally of
possible civilian votes as high as 2 million.

Gary Hart: 'We said September 11 was going to happen. I was angry with
myself for not doing more'

The Monday Interview: Former senator and twice-failed presidential
candidate

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
25 October 2004
Gary Hart, the former senator and presidential candidate, has been
around politics for a long time. That experience is telling him that
John Kerry is going to win the US presidential election when America
goes to the polls one week tomorrow.

"It's partly intuitive and partly based on several hidden votes that
are not [shown in the polls]," he said. "The hidden votes are new
registrants who are overwhelmingly Democratic, disaffected Republicans
who won't admit to a pollster they are not going to vote for their
party, and young voters who are rightly concerned about conscription
if Bush is re-elected. And many of those [have only mobile phones
pollsters are not permitted to call] and do not show up in the usual
polling."

Americans living on borrowed time

In the first of a three-part series Larry Elliott and David Teather
explore the economic recovery that never was

Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

Oil prices are heading for $60 a barrel. Motorists in the United
States are getting their heads round the idea of paying $2 for a
gallon of gas. Eighteen months after the ousting of Saddam Hussein was
supposed to put the skids under the cost of crude, you might imagine
America's reliance on imported fuel would be a crucial issue in the
race for the White House. It isn't.

America is racking up trade deficits of $50bn a month and anger is
growing out in the industrial heartlands about China's refusal to
revalue its currency. Yet trade policy is a peripheral issue as George
Bush and John Kerry enter the last week of campaigning.

Rumsfeld 'ignored Fallujah warnings'

By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
26 October 2004

Warnings by the US military commander of last April's operation in
Fallujah on the consequences of attacking the city were ignored by the
Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and not passed to President George
Bush, an American newspaper has claimed.

After weeks of fighting, and with 600 Iraqis dead, not only did the
assault fail, leaving Fallujah in the hands of the rebels, but it also
triggered the bloody insurgency still sweeping Iraq. The city has now
become the headquarters of Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi
whose fighters have mounted relentless attacks, the latest of which
claimed the lives of 49 Iraqi army recruits.

A Culture of Cover-Ups

By PAUL KRUGMAN
The president's officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy over any
information that might let voters assess his performance in the war on
terror.

Increase In War Funding Sought

Bush to Request $70 Billion More

By Jonathan Weisman and Thomas E. Ricks, Page A01
The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency
funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing
total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early
last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.

Missing Iraqi arsenal gives Kerry ammunition

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles and Michael Howard in Baghdad
Tuesday October 26, 2004
The Guardian

The war in Iraq returned to centre stage in the US presidential
election yesterday when John Kerry assailed the "unbelievable
incompetence" of the Bush administration after it emerged that more
than 340 tonnes of explosives had been looted from a storage plant in
Iraq.

The conventional explosives, powerful enough to demolish buildings and
bring down airliners or to detonate a nuclear device, have been
removed from al-Qaqaa storage site, a former Iraqi military site near
Baghdad that was once part of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme. It
was supposed to be under US guard.

'Secure' arms dump that may have armed enemy

By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
26 October 2004
Al-Qaqaa was named in Tony Blair's famous Iraq weapons dossier as a
factory whose products could kill many innocent people. That has
proved to be right. The deaths, however, have not come from Saddam's
non-existent weapons of mass destruction, but the hundreds of tons of
high explosives which have disappeared since Iraq's "liberation" by
the US and Britain.

The astonishing amount which has gone missing - 350 tons - makes an
awful lot of car bombs, the deadly daily diet for the people of Iraq
in the mayhem the American military cannot even begin to control.

You gotta have faith

Mark Lawson
Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

God Bless America: With God On Our Side
Channel 4, Saturday, 7.20pm

Jokes from politicians are generally ghostwritten and calculated to
increase their appeal, but one quip attributed to the first President
Bush has the distinction of being both original and electorally
suicidal. Entering a prayer breakfast of Republican fundamentalist
Christians, George HW Bush is supposed to have said: "I'm the only
person in this room that's only been born once."

'I reported the rape within 30 minutes - then watched my career
implode'

Suzanne Goldenberg reports on the scandal of unpunished sexual assault
within the US army

Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

The worst thing for Captain Jennifer Machmer was knowing that the US
army had actually promoted her rapist. Four years in the military,
from proud passing out at West Point to humiliating discharge, had
provided an education into the Pentagon's thinking on sexual assault
in the ranks, but Machmer never expected an accused rapist to be
rewarded.

Bush exploits suffering of 9/11, says Carter

Oliver Burkeman in Atlanta
Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

George Bush has exploited the suffering of September 11 and turned
back decades of efforts to make the world a safer place, the former
president Jimmy Carter says in an interview with the Guardian
published today.

Attacking Mr Bush and Tony Blair over Iraq, Mr Carter calls the war "a
completely unjust adventure based on misleading statements".

Mr President for good

Many believe that Jimmy Carter's record since leaving the White House
is far more impressive than anything he did in it. He tells Oliver
Burkeman why he's happy with his presidential years, how Bush
exploited 9/11 - and why America owes its independence to the French

Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

There can be few jobs in the United States Secret Service as cushy as
being one of Jimmy Carter's bodyguards. You get to wear the cool
earpiece, and ride in the blacked-out SUV, but, seriously, who's going
to want to attack the most decent man to have occupied the White House
in living memory? Wherever they go, George Bush, John Kerry and Bill
Clinton are surrounded by burly, paranoid-looking men, ready to
wrestle you to the ground if you breathe at them wrongly. But on a
crisp autumn day at the Carter Centre, a human-rights institute
sprawled over 35 leafy acres in Atlanta, Carter's security detail are
relaxing near one of the entrances, trading jokes, while their
80-year-old charge works unmonitored within. Nearby, the young
researchers showing up for work in jeans exude the happy calm of
people whose jobs mesh well with their consciences. As they pass in
the pink-walled lobby, they pause, make eye contact, and wish you good
morning like they really mean it. All of which makes the question of
how to address Carter slightly fraught. The standard practice (though
not, I later learn, the official etiquette) is to call all former
presidents "Mr President". But somewhere this informal, can that
really be appropriate?

Chaos, murder and mayhem

Kidnapping and killing is a daily reality in Iraq, but in the west the
atrocities go unrecorded and the dead are unnamed

Haifa Zangana
Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

The kidnapping of Margaret Hassan is shocking but not surprising. We
have come to accept that the same thing might happen to any of our
family or friends. In fact, it already has happened to my dearest
friend Nada.

Next president to inherit a legacy of mistrust and fear

The commander in chief faces domestic division, hatred abroad and an
urgent need for action in the Middle East

Simon Tisdall
Tuesday October 26, 2004
The Guardian

Whether George Bush or John Kerry wins the White House next Tuesday,
the next president faces an overflowing in-tray of international
problems.

America's global power has never been greater. But never, since the
September 11 catastrophe, has America's global leadership been under
such sustained challenge. Rarely have issues of foreign policy had
such a direct, existential bearing on America's sense of itself and
its security. Rarely has what the American president decides mattered
so much to so many.

For Ohio's jobless who receive no dole, this is a referendum on the
welfare state

Bush v Kerry: Battle for the economy

David Teather and Larry Elliott in Cleveland
Tuesday October 26, 2004
The Guardian

Theressia Gresham's unemployment cheques stopped arriving two months
ago. Ms Gresham, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, lost her job as a
forklift driver at the beginning of the year and has been unable to
find work since. The United States government will pay just 26 weeks
of benefits before cutting workers loose to fend for themselves. The
Bush administration, convinced that the economy is on the rebound,
recently ended a programme extending the payments a further 13 weeks.
She can't afford to be ill because she has no healthcare insurance,
although she has developed high blood pressure and diabetes since
being unemployed.

'It's the economy, dammit'

Bush or Kerry? Edward Helmore takes the pulse of USA Inc

Sunday October 24, 2004
The Observer

Over the next 10 days, Wall Street and global financial markets have
two significant dates to look forward to: the 75th anniversary of the
1929 stock market crash on 29 October, and the presidential elections
on 2 November.

The first date speaks for itself. The second finds the US financial
community - like the rest of the United States - in a state of
conflict. Like the direction of the US economy itself, the financial
effects of a win by either candidate are almost impossible to read.

Abortion crusade turns Republican women off Bush

Joanna Walters in New York
Sunday October 24, 2004
The Observer

George Bush's crackdown on abortion has inflamed women in his own
party to the point where they are openly turning against their
President.

Fuelled by a fear that a Bush victory in next month's election could
lead to many states overturning 30 years of legal terminations in the
US, several moderate Republican women are rebelling against the
crusade against sex education and unmarried women's access to
contraception.

President wins endorsement from admirers in the 'axis of evil'

AP in Tehran
Saturday October 23, 2004
The Guardian

He has accused the country of being part of the axis of evil, a
harbourer of al-Qaida terrorists and a nuclear menace threatening
global stability.

So President George Bush may view with suspicion a ringing election
endorsement from one of America's current enemies. Iran has thrown its
weight behind the Bush campaign, saying it is unimpressed with John
Kerry.

Portrait of a country on the verge of a nervous breakdown

With only nine days to go and the polls showing Bush and Kerry still
neck and neck, the result is once agin likely to turn on the minutiae
of the voting system. But this time the whole country seems poised to
descend into post-election chaos. Andrew Gumbel reports on the
traumatising effects of this bitter campaign and how, as the world's
most powerful democracy talks of exporting freedom to Iraq, it is at
risk of becoming an object of international ridicule

We are nobody's pawns

Iraqis need international solidarity, not support for violence

Abdullah Muhsin
Saturday October 23, 2004
The Guardian

Some in the west have argued wrongly that the chaos in Iraq represents
a national liberation struggle. They risk perpetuating a historical
myth about our country. There is always a risk of cultural imperialism
when people speak for others in the name of national liberation.

When I talked to students at Baghdad University in October 2003, six
months after the fall of Saddam's regime, they told me: "We were
against Saddam, we were against the war, and we are against the
occupation."

Catch-Up Tax Math

Some Republicans were aghast by the low taxes paid by Teresa Heinz
Kerry in 2003. But the reason she paid so little? President Bush's
controversial tax cut

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Allan Sloan
Updated: 4:45 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2004

Oct. 22 - Supporters of George W. Bush have spent a good part of this
week throwing rotten tomatoes at Teresa Heinz Kerry. Or, more
precisely, at her 2003 tax return, which the Kerry campaign released
late last Friday, the traditional day and time for disseminating
uncomfortable news.

Fear Factor

Kerry is rattling Republicans by accusing Bush of a ‘back-door' draft.
A disabled Vietnam vet finds the issue is also resonating on college
campuses

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:46 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2004

Oct. 22 - Bobby Muller was a Marine lieutenant leading an assault in
Vietnam when a bullet severed his spine in April 1969. He spent almost
a year recovering in a Veterans Hospital in the Bronx, where the woes
of other battlefield casualties echoed his own and led him to dedicate
his life to what he calls "war-related work.

Voting and Counting

By PAUL KRUGMAN
We must acknowledge the possibility that a narrow Bush win, especially
if it depends on Florida, rests on the systematic disenfranchisement
of minority voters.

Kerry sends 10,000 lawyers to fight for battleground states

By David Usborne in New York
22 October 2004
The Kerry campaign is preparing to deploy at least 10,000 lawyers
across election battleground states on 2 November to defend their
candidate's right to take the White House in the event that the
outcome of any count is called into question.

The aggressive strategy, born out of a determination to avoid mistakes
made by Al Gore in 2000, has enraged Republicans, who say that the
Democrats risk sabotaging the election day process before it even
begins. It is also kindling fears that the day may descend into a
legal maelstrom even more intense than that seen four years ago.

Top 35 Trends that say Kerry will Take the White House in November

By Tom Ball
10/20/04

This election is not just any old presidential election. To
Progressives, it's a matter of life and death.

It will be the difference between global respect for America and
multilateral cooperation or increased anti-Americanism and
never-ending, preemptive unilateral war...the difference between
American values of civil liberty and freedom or curbs on inalienable
rights and invasions of privacy...the difference between a future of
hope, health, safety, peace and prosperity or one of isolation,
violence, debt, and fear.

The Baghdad Blogger goes to Washington: day one

In the run-up to the Iraq conflict, a web diary from Baghdad captured
a global following. Its author, Salam Pax, reluctantly supported the
invasion. Now he journeys for the first time to the city where the
decision was taken for war - and asks if it's already too late for
freedom in his country.

Just say no, no, no

A new book reveals the three simple steps we need to take to prevent
nuclear terrorism, and we should all take that note, says John Allen
Paulos.

Thursday October 21, 2004
The Guardian

Nuclear terrorism is a horrifying possibility, but it needn't be a
paralysing one. That's the message of a new book, Nuclear Terrorism:
The ultimate preventable catastrophe, by Graham Allison. He begins by
sketching a realistic scenario in which as many as a million lives
could be lost following explosion of a nuclear device in a large
American city.

'You Have the Power'

It was a road trip to mobilize the black vote for Kerry. But for the
politicians and celebs on the tour, it was also a time for prayers,
funky music—and some shoe shopping

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Daren Briscoe
Newsweek
Updated: 3:51 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2004

Oct. 21 - Thirty-one hours into the get-out-the-vote bus tour across
Florida last weekend, Rep. Corrine Brown showed why she's sometimes
referred to as "Queen." Brown, a Florida Democrat, was one of the
movers and shakers on the four-day, seven-city tour brimming with
Congressional Black Caucus members, leading African-American Hollywood
actors and organized-labor bigwigs. By day two of "Our Vote, Our
Future" as bodies began to tire and nerves to fray, it was Brown who
insisted on an unscheduled detour. "Call it a mental-health stop,"
Brown said, leading a procession of prominent women into Phil's
Discount Ladies' Shoes in Jacksonville

Feeling the Draft

By PAUL KRUGMAN
President Bush's assurances that he won't reinstate the draft are
based on more denial of reality.

Dirty tricks return to the sunshine state

US election begins with voting in Florida dogged by controversy over
faulty machines and disenfranchised voters

Oliver Burkeman in Tallahassee
Tuesday October 19, 2004
The Guardian

Gordon Sasser first got the feeling that something strange was going
on when the telephone pierced the silence of a weekday afternoon at
his house on the swampy fringes of Tallahassee, northern Florida.

Polls Show Gains for Kerry Among Women in Electorate

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: October 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - Senator John Kerry appears to have reversed his
slide among women who are voters and has taken a lead over President
Bush in this crucial category, new polls show.

In early September, Mr. Bush led Mr. Kerry among women, 48 percent to
43 percent in the CBS News poll. As of Sunday, in The New York
Times/CBS News poll, Mr. Kerry was leading among women who are
registered voters, 50 percent to 40 percent. Other polls show Mr.
Kerry with a smaller lead among women, but a lead nonetheless.

Military Politics

A new poll shows that soldiers are more likely to vote for Bush. But
their reservations about his Iraq strategy are helping fueling some
shrill exchanges on the campaign trail

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Richard Wolffe
Newsweek
Updated: 5:25 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2004

Oct. 19 - Buried deep inside a recent poll of servicemen and women
(and their families), there's a surprisingly frank assessment of the
war in Iraq and the commander-in-chief. While the University of
Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey showed heavy support
for George W. Bush on questions of job approval and general voter
support, the military displayed deep concerns about Bush's goals in
Iraq.

When asked if the war in Iraq had reduced the risk of terrorism in the
United States, 47 per cent said yes while 42 per cent said the risk of
terrorism had increased. Added to the 9 per cent who said the war had
made no difference, more than half of the active soldiers and their
families believe the war in Iraq has failed to live up to Bush's
mission—to kill terrorists in Iraq before they kill Americans at home.
That wasn't the only disturbing news from the survey. By a narrow
margin of 48 to 47 per cent, a plurality of military folks believe
Bush has no clear plan to bring the war in Iraq to a successful
conclusion. The Annenberg poll also showed that a huge majority (72 to
18 per cent) believed Kerry has no clear plan for success.

Bush vs. the Laureates: How Science Became a Partisan Issue

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Why is science seemingly at war with President Bush?

TV chain sacks journalist who accused it of propaganda

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday October 20, 2004
The Guardian

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative-owned chain of television
stations which has provoked an uproar by its plans to broadcast
incendiary allegations against John Kerry, has sacked its chief
political correspondent for speaking out against the decision.

The Washington bureau chief, Jon Lieberman, said he had been dismissed
for "telling the truth". But Sinclair, which is owned by Republican
backers, said he had been sacked for speaking to the press about
"company business".

Traditionalists gun for Catholic contender

Democratic candidate punished for abortion views

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday October 20, 2004
The Guardian

The attempt to discredit John Kerry among his fellow Catholics
intensified yesterday when a rightwing activist claimed to have
Vatican support for his excommunication.

The claim, although immediately dismissed by the Vatican authorities,
steps up a campaign by conservative Catholics to punish Mr Kerry for
his support for abortion rights and stem cell research.

Thinktank: invasion aided al-Qaida

Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday October 20, 2004
The Guardian

Up to a thousand foreign jihadists have infiltrated Iraq, but this is
a fraction of al-Qaida's potential strength, a respected military
thinktank said yesterday.

The foreign fighters are operating with the Sunni Ba'athists loyal to
Saddam Hussein who began the insurgency, and possibly with Shia
militias as well, according to the the London-based International
Institute for Strategic Studies.

Soldiers Saw Refusing Order as Their Last Stand

By NEELA BANERJEE and ARIEL HART
The soldiers in Iraq who refused to deliver a shipment of fuel said
their trucks were unsafe and lacked a proper armed escort.

Exit Polls to Protect the Vote

By MARTIN PLISSNER

Published: October 17, 2004
WASHINGTON - Since the 1960's, the exit poll, that staple of
election-night television, has been used along with other tools to
declare winners when the polls close in each state, and its accuracy
is noted later when the actual vote count proves it right. A landmark
exception, of course, came in 2000, when the networks initially gave
the decisive Florida vote to Al Gore.

But now exit polls are being used in some places to monitor the
official vote count itself, either to validate the outcome or to mount
a challenge to it.

Senate race both parties must win

Even George Bush admits the contest for a Congressional seat in South
Dakota is second in importance only to his fight with John Kerry

Julian Borger at Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Monday October 18, 2004
The Guardian

There is an elderly woman with a long-winded anecdote about the old
days on the prairies; a farmer with a desperate appeal for drought
assistance and lower petrol prices; and a set of African refugees who
want a group photograph of themselves.

Tom Daschle, the most powerful Democrat in Washington, has time for
them all.

Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base

By NEIL A. LEWIS
Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and
coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in
recent interviews.

Hispanic Vote in Florida: Neither a Bloc Nor a Lock

By ABBY GOODNOUGH
An influx of Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and people from Central and South
America has diluted the political clout of Cubans in Florida,
loosening the Republican lock on the Hispanic vote.

Vote and Be Damned

By MAUREEN DOWD
Conservative bishops and conservative Republicans are working hard to
spread the gospel that anyone who supports John Kerry is aligned with
the forces of evil.

The Silent Vote

As Election Day approaches, Americans abroad are determined to make
their voices heard. Will their ballots make a difference?

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Eve Conant
Newsweek
Updated: 7:08 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004

Oct. 15 - While George W. Bush and John Kerry are desperately courting
voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio, voter activists are targeting a
silent but large constituency a bit further afield: the expat vote.
They are in the farthest flung corners of the earth; in Thailand and
Morocco, France and Venezuela. They are more than 4.4 million strong,
and their numbers—and sense of purpose—are swelling by the hour.

With polls projecting a tight race, Americans abroad know just how
much their votes could count. A recent tally of two Democratic Web
sites, OverseasVote2004.com and OverseasVote.com, shows that 75
percent of the total number of voters has registered in the last 10
weeks, and more than 40 percent of those voters are from swing states.
Although they did not give the exact figures, Republican organizers
outside the U.S. claim the number of voters signing on with
Republicans Abroad in Europe has skyrocketed 400 percent since 2000.
The number of chapters of Democrats Abroad has risen from 33 to 70
since the beginning of this year. "Based on our figures, 5.3 percent
of overseas voters are from Florida [and] 4.4 percent from
Pennsylvania. Washington, Michigan and Ohio all tie for about 3
percent," says Americans Overseas for Kerry's Jim Brenner, who is
based in Boston. Ironically, the real battleground states of this
election could end up being countries like Canada, France and Mexico.

Broadcaster drops Moore's anti-Republican show

By Danielle Demetriou
18 October 2004
America's election countdown has led to a battle of the airwaves after
a screening of the controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 was
cancelled.

Michael Moore, who made the film, has threatened to sue a cable
company over its decision to cancel a three-hour screening on the eve
of the election. The channel, In Demand, was due to broadcast his
documentary as well as interviews with politically active celebrities
as part of The Michael Moore Pre-Election Special on 1 November. It
said it cancelled the screening because of "legitimate business and
legal concerns".

Cash From Chaos

It was hoped the Iraq invasion would secure a key oil patch and
eventually spread freedom. But guess who's getting rich?

By Christopher Dickey and Tom Masland
Newsweek

Oct. 25 issue - A massive tower of smoke roiled skyward above the
green landscape of the Niger Delta on the west coast of Africa. Oil
was burning near a ruptured pipeline, and the huge Anglo-Dutch
multinational Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria reported
sabotage caused the break. Were rebels behind it? Terrorists? Or just
thieves trying to steal oil and scrap metal? The only clue was a
hacksaw at the scene, apparently dropped in a moment of panic when the
line erupted like a gusher.

Where the Buck Stops

Viewpoint: The first CEO president stands before America's
shareholders. Rehire, or fire? A columnist's take on the record

By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek

Oct. 25 issue - At bottom, elections involving incumbents are always
about rehiring or summarily firing the president. The voters are like
shareholders in a messy proxy fight. They have to examine how current
management is handling the country's business, then make a
tough-minded decision about performance.

This is where the election will be won or lost. And it ain't Baghdad

With 16 days to go until polling day, the battle for the White House
is being fought not just over Iraq's killing fields, but in places
like Wilkes-Barre, where jobs and not body bags are what will drive
voters to the polls. In the second of a major series of reports, US
editor Rupert Cornwell visits Pennsylvania, one of three giant swing
states (and one of four critical 'rust-belt' states) that will
determine the outcome of the most bitterly fought election of recent
times

17 October 2004
During election campaigns, politicians peddle dreams. But there were
few dreams, American or otherwise, to be savoured on a gloomy,
drenchingly wet morning here last week, in a conversation with Steve
Duda. These days, he is to be found in the offices of CareerLink, an
organisation that is part labour exchange, part job retraining centre,
operated by the state of Pennsylvania. More pertinently, he is a
living symbol of the most contentious economic issue of campaign 2004,
the haemorrhage of US manufacturing jobs overseas.

Wilkes-Barre, set in a broad valley in the eastern Appalachians, has
an ancient link with Britain, taking its name from John Wilkes and
Isaac Barre, two 18th-century Westminster MPs who stood up for the
colonies against George III. In the American context, too, it is a
town more famous for its past than its present, best known for the
anthracite mines which in their heyday 100 years ago produced 40 per
cent of the world's supply of hard coal.

Has Bush lost his reason?

The President's apparent mental fragility should give US voters pause
for thought at the ballot box

Andrew Stephen
Sunday October 17, 2004
The Observer

It will, we are confidently told, be the most important American
election for generations. In the words last week of Dick Cheney, the
voice of what passes for gravitas in the Bush Administration,
Americans will have to make 'about as serious a decision as anybody is
ever asked to make' when they go to the polls in 17 days' time.

The prophets of doom, whom Cheney exemplifies, are precisely right
about the importance of this election. But the momentous decision
awaiting Americans is not whether they return to power a President who
is uniquely qualified to protect the US against terrorism, as Cheney
et al would have us believe. It is whether they re-elect a man who, it
is now clear, has become palpably unstable.

The 24-carat fake

Gaby Wood profiles comedian Jon Stewart who presents The Daily Show,
the phony news-and-talk television show with real power

Sunday October 17, 2004
The Observer

From a solemn TV studio in New York, a news presenter is interviewing
Rudolph Giuliani, the city's former mayor. Giuliani, a Republican, is
commenting on the first presidential debate of 2004 and criticising
John Kerry's wavering stance on the war. 'I agree with you,' says the
presenter politely, 'he's had trouble articulating that in the past,
but tonight he seemed relatively consistent.'

'Really?' shouts Giuliani, leading the presenter to smirk in
faux-submission: 'Coulda been my TV. Might well have been my TV.' The
studio audience dissolves into laughter and Giuliani is doomed. The
presenter is The Daily Show 's Jon Stewart, a man advertised on
billboards as 'the most trusted name in fake news'. The phrase is a
spoof of CNN's motto and Stewart's show, which airs at 11pm on Monday
to Thursday nights, has made him a cult hero.

Of God and greenbacks

When a Billy Graham Crusade comes to town, you don't just need faith
in your heart when you attend, you also need a full wallet. Tim Adams
joins the flock in Kansas City and meets the son destined to inherit
the Graham family business

Sunday October 17, 2004
The Observer

Here they come. They have been called, but the movement is hardly
noticeable at first. People shuffling along rows of seats, excuse me,
ma'am, excuse me, sir, in ones and twos. Married couples in matching
shirts holding hands. Now, some groups of giggling teenage girls,
wondering if they should, smoothing their hair, checking their bags.
Young men holding Bibles. Enormous people in outsize shorts, following
their bellies, manoeuvring gargantuan backsides through gaps in the
crowd, gripping half-gallons of Coke. People with sticks, on the arms
of carers, watching every step. A silent army descending solemnly in
bright white Reeboks and Nikes.

Violence threatens Darwin's paradise

Conservationists and fishermen clash in the Galapagos

Robin McKie
Sunday October 17, 2004
The Observer

Spanish explorers called them Las Encantadas, the Enchanted Isles, and
Charles Darwin used his studies of the islands as the foundation for
his theory of natural selection. The Galapagos are among the world's
most important scientific treasures, a group of stark volcanic islands
fringed by deserted beaches and inhabited by unique varieties of giant
tortoise, lizards and birds.

Yet life on this idyllic United Nations world heritage site has turned
sour. Pitched battles have broken out between fishermen, armed with
machetes, and conservationists. Ecuador, which owns the islands, has
sent a naval patrol to quell disturbances, while police last week
began arresting local men for rioting and assault.

Platoon defies orders in Iraq

Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns

By Jeremy Hudson
The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson, Miss., and
around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a
"suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said
Thursday.

The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north
of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or
extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry
O. McCook.

Deconstructing the Undecided Voter

How do swing voters make up their minds? A Harvard psychologist has
some insights

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Jennifer Barrett Ozols
Newsweek
Updated: 2:42 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004

Oct. 14 - With just weeks until Election Day, both George W. Bush and
John Kerry are criss-crossing the country trying to persuade undecided
or wavering voters that he is the right man to run the country. But
what does it take to change a voter's mind? A better-than-expected
performance in a 90-minute debate? A hometown campaign stop? A spate
of attack ads?

Howard Gardner, a psychologist and professor at Harvard, has been
pondering these very questions. In his latest book, "Changing Minds:
The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds"
(Harvard Business School Press), Gardner identifies key elements of
the decision-making process and explains how they can be influenced to
alter the outcome. NEWSWEEK's Jennifer Barrett Ozols spoke with
Gardner about how presidential debates shape voters' choices and which
campaign strategies have been most effective in swaying them.

Will We Need a New 'All the President's Men'?

Like the Nixon administration before it, the current White House has
kneecapped with impunity any news organization that challenges its
message.

Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us?

Naomi Klein Iraqis are still being forced to pay for crimes committed
by Saddam

Saturday October 16, 2004
The Guardian

Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-down
morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On October 21, Iraq
will pay $200m in war reparations to some of the richest countries and
corporations in the world.

If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never been
awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered under Saddam,
or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the lives of at least half
a million people, or the US-led invasion, which the UN secretary
general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal". Instead, Iraqis are
still being forced to pay reparations for crimes committed by their
former dictator.

An American scapegoat in London

In Britain, America-bashing is so bad that I fear for my safety

Carol Gould
Saturday October 16, 2004
The Guardian

Something remarkable has been happening to me in the past 19 days.
Wherever I go, no one launches abuse at me. When I open my mouth to
speak, I am received with civility and the occasional "Have a good
one". I am not attacked or intimidated. Where have I been visiting for
the past two and a half weeks? Philadelphia. And where do I live?
London.

Under siege since 9/11, Arab voters shift to Kerry

Gary Younge
Saturday October 16, 2004
The Guardian

Driving down Michigan Avenue in Dearborn a woman in a chador takes her
hand off the steering wheel of her SUV to light a Marlboro. Through
the half-open window she exhales smoke and Lebanese pop music. As she
turns into Dunkin' Donuts her bumper reveals a frayed sticker: Vote
Kerry/Edwards.

Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, is the hub of Arab America. When the
car plants of the Motor City had attracted all the labour they could
from African-Americans fleeing tyranny and poverty in the deep south,
they went for those fleeing poverty and war from the global south.

Crucial Florida Vote May Hinge On Burgeoning Latino Population

By Dan Balz and Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 16, 2004; Page A01

The state that decided the 2000 election remains as deeply divided
over the choice for president today as it was four years ago, with
President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry deadlocked in Florida amid signs
of extraordinary intensity and partisanship among voters, according to
a new survey by The Washington Post, Univision and the Tomas Rivera
Policy Institute.

With less than three weeks before Election Day, Florida and its 27
electoral votes represent the biggest single prize left on an
electoral map that has seen the number of truly competitive states
shrink to a dozen or fewer.

Cheneys denounce Kerry for invoking daughter's sexuality

By David Usborne in New York
16 October 2004

John Kerry found himself distracted by an unexpected political
firestorm after Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, and his wife fiercely
denounced him yesterday for invoking the sexuality of their daughter,
Mary, in the waning minutes of Wednesday night's presidential debate.

Nader returns to threaten Kerry in quicksilver election

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
16 October 2004

Democrats are increasingly concerned that the presence of independent
candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot in a handful of battlefield states
could again prevent them from defeating George Bush in the race for
the White House.

Despite Democrats' aggressive legal campaign to block Mr Nader's
candidacy, the man blamed by many for Al Gore's defeat in 2000 is
likely to appear on the ballot in 35 states - including more than half
a dozen of the crucial battleground states in which this election is
likely to be decided.

Liberal Christians Mobilize to React to Religious Right

By NEELA BANERJEE
The efforts of conservative Christians to mobilize voters in support
of President Bush have stirred a growing backlash among more liberal
believers.

Yes, It's a Political Issue

If the government has failed to deal with the flu vaccine shortage,
how can American voters have faith in the nation's public-health
system--and its ability to deal with a bio-terror attack?

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 3:40 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004

Oct. 15 - If the voters are looking for consistency, they got it in
John Kerry. Not once in three debates did he appear flustered. Always
in control, he delivered his message with surgical precision. If he
wins in November, the debates were the critical moment.

Viewed in their entirety as opposed to three separate performances,
the debates resuscitated Kerry's candidacy and exposed Bush's
limitations. Still, they could have been even more decisive if Kerry
had the courage occasionally to go with his gut. When the issue of
stem-cell research came up, it is mystifying to those who know how
deeply Kerry feels the loss of Christopher Reeves, that he said
nothing to mourn the actor's death. "Sad as it is, it would have been
completely tasteful to say we have lost one of the most inspiring
advocates of stem-cell research," says a Senate Democratic aide who
advises the Kerry campaign on foreign-policy issues.

Che Guevara's daughter voices Cuban fears that Bush has country in his
sights

By Terri Judd
16 October 2004

Aleida Guevara, the daughter of the legendary revolutionary Che
Guevara, was in London yesterday to speak about the growing threat of
US military aggression against Cuba.

Bumper stickers across Florida proclaim "Iraq today, Cuba tomorrow".
In the lead-up to the elections President George Bush cannot afford to
ignore the vocal anti-Castro American Cuban vote in Florida. Jeb Bush,
his brother and state Governor, has said: "After its success in Iraq,
Washington should finish with the regime of Castro."

Insurgents strike at heart of America's power in Baghdad

By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
15 October 2004
Bombers in Baghdad took the war to the very heart of US power in Iraq
yesterday when two blasts inside the supposedly impregnable Green Zone
killed 10 people, four of them Americans, and injured 20.

Tawhid and Jihad, a group led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
claimed responsibility. Last night US forces launched a major
offensive on Fallujah, where the militant leader is believed to be
based. The town was pounded from the air by warplanes and helicopter
gunships and heavy artillery and tanks on the ground. Two US Marine
battalions began to advance into the town from the north and east.

High turnout expected as campaigns stir passions

By David Usborne in New York
15 October 2004
Americans appear to be preparing to cast their ballots in landslide
numbers on 2 November, a reflection of the deep passions stirring
supporters of both candidates in the presidential race and the fruit
of frenzied efforts by each party to persuade citizens to register to
vote.

With the deadlines passed in most states, there is evidence that the
registration drives have been unusually effective.

Block the Vote

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Vote-tampering is the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture
in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not
punished.

Kerry Could Take New Hampshire

(CPOD) Oct. 9, 2004 – John Kerry is the top presidential candidate in
New Hampshire, according to a poll by Franklin and Marshall College's
Center for Opinion Research. 49 per cent of respondents would vote for
the Democratic nominee in the 2004 United States presidential
election, while 42 per cent would support Republican incumbent George
W. Bush.

Kerry prowess ensures race will go to wire

Bush's poll lead evaporates after three confident debating
performances from the Democratic challenger

Dan Glaister in Tempe, Arizona
Friday October 15, 2004
The Guardian

The Democratic challenger, John Kerry, emerged yesterday from the
third and final televised debate with enhanced credentials, as he and
George Bush moved into the last phase of the campaign.

Polls taken shortly after Wednesday night's debate in Arizona between
Mr Kerry and President Bush gave the challenger the spoils for the
third successive time. But an ABC poll last night put overall ratings
level at 48% each.

Bush's best is not good enough

His story is only of war. At home, he offers merely evasion and denial

Sidney Blumenthal
Friday October 15, 2004
The Guardian

Even now, the White House - or at least one room, the Lincoln bedroom
- is being redecorated for President Bush's second term. The famous
long bed will remain; so will the original Emancipation Proclamation
in its glass case. But, dominating the room, above the bed, will be
placed a large carved crown from which will flow, ceiling to floor,
royal purple satin drapes. The crown has been sent to be gilded with
gold in anticipation of Bush's triumphant return from his campaign.

The making of the terror myth

Since September 11 Britain has been warned of the 'inevitability' of
catastrophic terrorist attack. But has the danger been exaggerated? A
major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a
politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion. Andy
Beckett reports

Friday October 15, 2004
The Guardian

Since the attacks on the United States in September 2001, there have
been more than a thousand references in British national newspapers,
working out at almost one every single day, to the phrase "dirty
bomb". There have been articles about how such a device can use
ordinary explosives to spread lethal radiation; about how London would
be evacuated in the event of such a detonation; about the Home
Secretary David Blunkett's statement on terrorism in November 2002
that specifically raised the possibility of a dirty bomb being planted
in Britain; and about the arrests of several groups of people, the
latest only last month, for allegedly plotting exactly that.

Evangelicals on the march as pastor tells them: 'Vote your values'

By Rupert Cornwell in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
15 October 2004

As he reflects upon the volatile mixture of religion and politics in
Election 2004, Dave Landis picks his words carefully. "As a pastor I
can encourage my congregation to register to vote, but I can't name a
party or a candidate from the pulpit," he says with a smile in the
cosy office of his Word of Grace Ministries in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. "However I can encourage them to vote prayerfully, to
'vote your values.'" And no one will be hoping more fervently he does
so than George Bush.

Arguably, the evangelical Christians are the most important single
group of voters in the country. White "born agains" and evangelicals
account for an estimated 27 per cent of the electorate, more than
blacks and Hispanics combined. Here in Pennsylvania, one of the most
closely contested states and narrowly carried by Al Gore in 2000,
their share is 22 per cent.

Controversy over Iraq debt deepens

US investment firm linked to Bush envoy may never have told White
House of planned backstairs deal

David Leigh
Thursday October 14, 2004
The Guardian

Allegations against the Carlyle Group, the giant US investment firm
linked to President George Bush's Iraq debt envoy, James Baker, took a
fresh turn last night.

It emerged that the firm may never have disclosed to the White House a
planned backstairs deal in which Mr Baker figured.

Bush and Kerry clash on domestic policy

· President attacks 'far left' challenger
· Health and security top agenda
· Kerry targets women voters

Dan Glaister in Tempe, Arizona
Thursday October 14, 2004

The series of presidential debates that have transformed the US
election campaign ended last night in Arizona, with President George
Bush characterising his opponent as a politician on the "far left" of
the political mainstream, and Senator John Kerry attacking the
president's record on jobs, the economy, healthcare and Iraq.

Instant polls on the debate suggested that the result of the
confrontation was another victory for the Democratic candidate, with
some news organisations giving Senator Kerry posting a lead of between
1% (on ABC) and 14% (CBS). However, other polls indicated a draw, with
neither candidate deemed to have landed a killer blow.

Bush, Kerry surrogates overwhelm Michigan

By George Weeks / The Detroit News

While President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry have been debating
and campaigning elsewhere of late, their second bananas and surrogates
tend to the Michigan trail.

On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney, on his fifth state swing this
year, visits traditionally Republican west Michigan with wife Lynn, a
public figure in her own right as author and crusader for conservative
causes.

State focused on voter rights

Given the burgeoning concerns surrounding the Nov. 2 vote count, the
last thing we need is people mucking up the works with fraudulent
registration forms. Officials are right to tackle any incidents of
voter fraud.

Gov. Bill Owens says the "sanctity and security of the ballot box are
at stake." That's true, not primarily because of fraud but because of
the new state rules that could discount honest votes.

Executive denies voter registration forms destroyed in Nevada

ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

(10-13) 19:05 PDT LAS VEGAS (AP) --

The chief executive of an Arizona consulting firm denied Wednesday
that a group he hired to register Republicans in Nevada deliberately
tore up Democratic voter registration forms.

State and federal officials said they were aware of allegations that
Voters Outreach of America failed to register Democrats and were
trying to determine if any laws might have been broken.

Singer, Feminist Urge Women to Vote

By Laura Banish
Journal Staff Writer

Women hold the power in the 2004 election, feminist and author Gloria
Steinem and singer/songwriter Carole King told audiences during
separate appearances in Santa Fe on Wednesday.

Both women spoke to mostly female audiences to rally support for
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Rise in black turnout could hurt Bush

By David Usborne in New York

14 October 2004
Black leaders are predicting a higher turnout among African-Americans
in November's presidential election, a factor that could prove crucial
in tipping the race in favour of John Kerry.

One group, Hip Hop Summit Action, is boasting it has persuaded an
additional 2 million blacks to register to vote.

Democrats hope ground offensive can seal Arizona

By Andrew Gumbel in Flagstaff, Arizona
14 October 2004
In Arizona, the presidential election has already begun. In fact,
thanks to early voting facilities and postal absentee balloting, it
has been under way for more than two weeks. And that could have
profound significance for John Kerry, in a state which had been all
but ceded to George Bush before the debates but whose 10 electoral
votes now appear to be very much back in play.

As the two candidates crossed swords in their third and final debate
at the University of Arizona last night, party activists were focused
on the tactics both sides believe could sew up the state even before
election day: bombarding likely supporters with phone calls urging
them to vote now rather than later; handing out early voting
application forms; and impressing on everyone that every last vote
counts.

Where Kerry Is Trying to Avoid Gore's Pitfalls

By JAMES DAO

Published: October 13, 2004

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - This state's Democratic roots run as deep as its
coal mines. Retirees still speak reverently about the New Deal.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one. And
since 1928, only four Republicans have won its electoral votes. Three
were incumbents riding national landslides.

Turning Out the Vote

By ALAN B. KRUEGER
What's the most cost-effective way to encourage people to turn out to
vote

Bush special envoy embroiled in controversy over Iraq debt

Consortium plans to cash in as Baker asks countries to end £200bn
burden

Naomi Klein
Wednesday October 13, 2004
The Guardian

President Bush's special envoy, James Baker, who has been trying to
persuade the world to forgive Iraq's crushing debts, is simultaneously
working for a commercial concern that is trying to recover money from
Iraq, according to confidential documents.

Mr Baker's Carlyle Group is in a consortium secretly proposing to try
to collect $27bn (£15bn) on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest
creditors, by using high-level political influence. It claims Mr Baker
will not benefit personally, but the consortium could make millions in
fees, retainers and commission as a result.

Time to call time on Donald Rumsfeld

Simon Tisdall
Wednesday October 13, 2004
The Guardian

If George Bush loses the US election in three weeks' time, he and all
the senior members of his national security team will be out on their
ears next January.

If he wins, a frenzy of in-fighting, intrigue and back-stabbing over
who gets, or keeps, the top jobs in a second Bush administration will
instantly ensue.

Parties square off with best campaigns money can buy

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
13 October 2004

This was supposed to be the year when campaign finance reform
liberated American politics from the tyranny of the almighty dollar.
And guess what? The 2004 presidential election will be the most
expensive event in global political history with a final price tag of
$1.5bn (£838m) or more when all is said and done in three weeks' time.

TV channels to rubbish Kerry on eve of poll

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday October 12, 2004
The Guardian

One of America's biggest television companies has announced plans to
broadcast a film days before the presidential election that portrays
the Democratic candidate John Kerry as betraying his fellow soldiers
in Vietnam.

The conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group will reportedly present the
film as news on the 62 local channels it owns nationwide.

Checking the Facts, in Advance

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Here are seven lies or distortions you'll hear from the president in
the next debate, and the truth about each.

Challenging Rest of the World With a New Order

By ROGER COHEN, DAVID E. SANGER and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The election will show if the president's foreign policy has been
persuasive at home. It has clearly divided America's friends.

Group of Bishops Using Influence to Oppose Kerry

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Some bishops and Catholic groups are intent on throwing the weight of
the church into the elections.

Life and death of a hero

Paralysed from the neck down after a riding accident, Christopher
Reeve became a tireless campaigner for stem cell research. Some
accused him of offering false hope. But it is his courage and strength
of will that will be remembered, says Oliver Burkeman

Tuesday October 12, 2004
The Guardian

You were well advised to leave your pity at the door of Christopher
Reeve's airy, sun-filled home, hidden amid the rolling meadows and
white wooden barns of upstate New York. What struck you first, as he
was steered into the room, was his commanding height: his throne-like
wheelchair lifted his broad-shouldered bulk off the ground; sitting
down, you found yourself tilting your head upwards to look at him.

The winners are warlords, not women

The US and Britain used the oppression of Afghan women to justify
their intervention. That's not how it's seen on the ground

Natasha Walter
Tuesday October 12, 2004
The Guardian

In the elections held in Afghanistan last weekend, many reporters
concentrated on the extraordinary spectacle of women queueing, their
blue burkas billowing, at the polling stations. George Bush also hit
upon this as proof of the success of the American presence in
Afghanistan. He stated that the first person to vote in the election
was a 19-year-old woman, and commented that she was "voting in this
election because the United States of America believes that freedom is
the almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world".

A Doctrine Under Pressure: Pre-emption Is Redefined

By DAVID E. SANGER
Under pressure to explain anew his decision to invade Iraq, President
Bush appears to be quietly redefining his doctrine of pre-emptive
military action.