Friends and Kerry Wisconsin canvassers at the Mars Cheese Castle after a long day of walking the wards in Racine 

Bush No Lincoln

There was an Election of 1864!

a call to make your voices heard!)

The Civil War had pretty much started by the time Lincoln began his first term in office. Seven states had joined the Confederacy and elected Jefferson Davis as President. By 1863, leading Republicans were looking to replace Lincoln with Salmon P. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, because the Union war plan was not going well. Despite a bloody and raging Civil War that was being fought up to the doorstep of the nation's capital and ultimately took well over a half million lives, and threats to his administration, there was one thing that Lincoln did not do--cancel or delay the election of 1864, and there is no evidence to support any suggestion that he even thought about it

In the summer of 1864, Lincoln wrote a note to his cabinet and had them sign it on the back: "This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then, it will be my duty to so co-operate the the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possible save it afterward." This was Lincoln's effort to get his cabinet to pledge to cooperate with the new President elect.

Not reminding anyone much of Lincoln under any circumstances, however, George W. Bush has his thugs researching how to legally justify postponing the election of 2004 in case of a terrorist attack. Reuters and Newsweek are reporting that the Department of Homeland Security (known to many of us as the Jr. SS) has asked the Justice Department to come up with such justification. They are using the U.S. Election Assistance Commission which was created help states replace punch card voting systems like the one that was involved in the suspect 2000 Florida election to provide administrative supportive for this plan and are using the postponement of the NY primary on Sept. 11 as precedent. Now, they just need the terrorist attack.

Some things are just so over the top that they are completely unacceptable even if only a possibility. If the Bush Administration was genuinely concerned about an attack harming the character of the nation, they would not be secretly cooking up a plan to figure out how to delay an election, but would be openly working on a plan to ensure an election would proceed in all due haste in the event of attack.

Call to action!! Freedom loving Americans must write to George W. Bush, Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft strongly and vehemently objecting to this plan.

Contact the White House:

Mailing Address:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers:

Comments:   202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX:             202-456-2461
E-Mail:
President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Richard Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Contact the Dept. of Justice:

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
E-Mail:
E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.
Contact the Department of Homeland Security:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

E-mail: from their website: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/contactus

Illinois Reacts to Fahrenheit 9/11

By most accounts, Fahrenheit 9/11 told us nothing new. We have already heard about the Bush Royal Family/Saudi Royal Family connection, Halliburton and Cheney, soldiers dying or being maimed, and Bush's seven minutes in grade school. We were not educated necessarily, but the film gave us a chance to see what we had only previously heard about in bits and pieces.

Watching the vacant look on Bush's face during the seven minutes from when he first heard the 9/11 attack had taken place to the time he left the classroom was chilling particularly when followed by the scene in which he flippantly moved from denouncing terror to having a reporter watch his golf shot, followed by the scene where he and his white tied base laughed about their power and fortune followed by the scene in which poor young boys were being recruited by Marines.

Then, there was the underreported news. The riot that preceded Bush's Inauguration did not make big news although it was the first Inauguration Day riot in the nation's history. The moving stories of the wounded soldiers from Iraq never seemed to make the news although many remember such stories from Vietnam. The press' love affair with the war that we felt last spring was laid before us with clarity by Michael Moore. Where was our Fourth Estate? Same place as our Supreme Court when it appointed Bush President. It's enough to make Jefferson and Madison roll in their graves.

The film was particularly emotional for the Mundelein, Illinois parents of a soldier in Iraq. Their son was part of the first group of soldiers to enter Iraq and seeing the movie was, for them, like reliving that awful day all over again.

Others saw the humor of the film. Michael Moore is always good at making his point with parody, this time with Bush and the neo-cons as the Cartwrights of Bonanza which got a big laugh in Highland Park. Most, however, left very sad. One Glencoe resident spoke of her concern for being patriotic and how that meant, to her, supporting the President and the troops. She was unsure how she could she be patriotic now?

Illinois residents are also showing remorse for what we have done to the Iraqi people and for our apathy and neglect of our duty to keep our government balanced and open in the light of clarity and truth.

I was particularly moved by the story of the mother from Michigan who lost her son in the war. Her story brought home in very real terms the human cost of this war, not just in casualty counts, but to the survivors at home. If the daughters of George Bush and the children of his wealthy supporters were at risk of serving in his unnecessary foreign adventures, I would hope that he would not be inflaming the people of the Middle East with the taunt to "Bring it on." But this is a man who is not only arrogant, but profoundly insensitive. --Charles Knight

If you were outraged by what you saw in this film, then you were simply not paying attention to what has been happening ever since December 12, 2000. --Dave D.

My reaction was one of sadness...but not sadness at
the events depicted, but sadness that Michael Moore
had to do a documentary to get this information to the
majority of Americans who take little or no interest
in what has been going on for the past four years. As
was pointed out before, "If you're not outraged,
you're not paying attention"! There were very little
"new" things in the film. Most everything came from a
simple reading of a daily newspaper...something most
people don't do, including the so-called president!
--Jim Gagne

Even understanding the power of editing, the film presented images for which there could be no misinterpretation. The pain of a mother losing her son, the disbelief in seeing our fellow citizens being dismissed in the voting process, and the total inability of our nation's leader to lead, sitting and reading a children's book while our country was under attack. These can not be misinterpreted.....and then there are the lies. --Sharon Narrod

Folks in Champaign left the film more motivated then ever.--John Laesch

John and Bev at Ravinia. 

Friends at Ravinia for Garrison Keillor.