Thu Jun 20 2013

FROM THE HEARTLAND
True the Vote "just doesn't seem right": Criminal charges considered in special meeting by Bob Fitrakis Did a right-wing election observer falsify election forms? The Columbus Free Press has learned that the Franklin County Board of Elections will consider referring an election observer affiliated with the voter suppression organization True the Vote for criminal prosecution. The special meeting is scheduled Thursday, June 6, 2013. READ THE ARTICLE	San Onofre is dead and so is nuclear power by Harvey Wasserman From his California beach house at San Clemente, Richard Nixon once watched three reactors rise at nearby San Onofre. As of June 7, 2013, all three are permanently shut. READ THE ARTICLE
Did Columbus cops shoot and jail the wrong man? by Martin Yant The bewitching hour of midnight is historically viewed as a time of bad luck, and that certainly proved true for David Kibble on June 19, 2004. Because of an unfortunate intersection of unrelated events just after midnight that evening, Kibble was shot and seriously wounded by a Columbus police officer and ended up in prison for a crime the physical evidence and witness statements suggest he didn’t commit. READ THE ARTICLE

NATIONAL

Will the United States really bomb Iran?
by Alexander Cockburn
"They're about taking out the entire Iranian military." This particular spine-chiller comes from Alexis Debat, excitingly identified as "director of terrorism and national security" at the Nixon Center. According to Debat, the big takeout is what the U.S. Air Force has in store, as opposed to mere "pinprick strikes" against the infamous nuclear facilities.
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Column 86: Black Radio Entertainers
by Thomas Fleming
Jazz owes a lot of its popularity to the phonograph, going back to the early days, when Thomas Edison invented the musical box that brought jazz to people who lived outside of the areas where jazz musicians played. Through phonograph records, they could hear the music of such people as "King" Joe Oliver. He was the first of the legendary great trumpet players to come out of New Orleans, the city where most experts in the field say that jazz originated. Jazz was played in the whorehouses in that city, and Louis Armstrong credits Oliver as being one person from whom he learned his style of playing trumpet.
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Goodbye, Molly I. (by Anthony Zurcher)
by Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins is gone, and her words will never grace these pages again -- for this, we will mourn. But Molly wasn't the type of woman who would want us to grieve. More likely, she'd say something like, "Hang in there, keep fightin' for freedom, raise more hell, and don't forget to laugh, too."
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Racializing Obama
by Dr. Manning Marable
From the beginning of Barack Obama's quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, there were African-American critics who accused him of not being "black enough." Ironically, some of those questioning his ethnic credentials were neoconservatives, or apologists for the Republican Right Wing.
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Zero public option + one mandate = disaster
by Norman Solomon
Not long ago, the most prominent supporters of the public option were touting it as essential for healthcare reform. Now, suddenly, it's incidental.
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SATIRE: 'Who Would Jesus Debate?' Leaked White House Transcript
by Lee Waters
PRESIDENT BUSH: Dammit, Turdblossom, I told you these debates were wrong. Why do I have to answer to some liberal homosexual Senator. Why does Dick have to sit with that wimp ambulance chaser. It sends a mixed message. It tells people we have a system whereby God’s leaders are subject to questioning.
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Rhonda Chriss Lokeman