Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Season’s readings

We don’t usually post general items like this one here, but I’ll make an exception with this one. From The Guardian a list of good books: “writers and guest critics recommend their favourites, from bestsellers to the undeservedly obscure.”
The contributors:

JG Ballard | Iain Banks |Julian Barnes |Sidney Blumenthal |William Boyd |Gordon Burn |AS Byatt |Richard Eyre |James Fenton |Giles Foden |Jonathan Freedland |Linda Grant |John Gray |Mark Haddon |Sarah Hall |James Hamilton-Paterson |David Hare |Seymour Hersh |Alan Hollinghurst |Nick Hornby |Ian Jack |AL Kennedy |Helena Kennedy |Martin Kettle |Hanif Kureishi | Andrea Levy | Nicholas Lezard | Ian McEwan | Neil Macgregor | Katie Mitchell | Blake Morrison | John Mullan | Meg Rosoff | Simon Schama | Helen Simpson | Zadie Smith | Jon Snow | Claire Tomalin | Colm T—ib’n | Polly Toynbee | William Trevor

Declaration from Buenos Aires - Social Forum of Information 2004

The attendees at the First Social Forum on Information, Documentation and Libraries: alternative action programs from Latin America for the information society, held in Buenos Aires from August 26-28, 2004, was called by the Social Studies Group on Library Science and Documentation (Argentina) and the Study Circle on Political and Social Librarianship (Mexico).

We recognize that:

Information, knowledge, documentation, archives, and libraries are communal cultural goods and resources. They are based upon and promoted by democratic values, such as: freedom, equality, and social justice, as well as tolerance, respect, equity, solidarity, communities, society, and the dignity of individuals.

Week in Review > How Americans Voted: A Political Portrait” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/weekinreview/07conn.html?ex=1257483600&en=d7d3c29173baef8b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland”>The New York Times: How Americans Voted: A Political Portrait

Here’s an interesting article for you data wonks out there. See the historic portrait of the electoral from 1976 - 2004.

This portrait of the 2004 electorate emerges from interviews with 13,600 voters conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News. The large number of respondents makes it possible to measure the preferences of some groups, like Jews and Asians, whose share of the population is too small to be examined in typical telephone surveys.

To the Editor of the New York Times History News Network.

The History News Network web site invites historians
“If you write to the NYT and your letter isn’t published, please send it to us.”
Many do, and the results are here.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Attack prompts Bush website block

While not an official government web site, this seems all too consistent with current administration information policies. Interestingly, the Bush campaign is able to do this by making use of the exact same service that GPO has just announce plans to use: Akamai EdgeScape.

The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website.

Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: “The measure was taken for security reasons.”
He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy.

“Separate Reality of Bush/Kerry Supporters (pdf)

This new report out yesterday from the Program on International Policy Studies (PIPA) shows that Bush and Kerry supporters live in totally different universes where Bush supporters believe it is a fact that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass estruction; Kerry supporters don’t. Bush supporters believe Saddam was supporting al Qaeda; Kerry supporters don’t. Bush supporters believe most people in other countries approve of the war in Iraq; Kerry supporters don’t.

PIPA has some other valuable online reports on such hot-button issues as global warming, Iraq, Israel-Palestinian conflict, and Americans’ role in the world.

[Thanks to Electoral Vote for referring me to the report!]

Florida 2000: The Sequel - Five ways the election could end up in court, again. By Richard L. Hasen

With all the uproar about voting irregularities (paper thickness issues in Ohio, companies paid to register voters actually throwing out democratic registrations in OR, FL once again trying to dump voters off the rolls and intimidating black voters…) and truly nasty ads on both sides in the swing states, here’s an interesting article that surmises 5 nightmare scenarios on November 3rd.

–Voting glitches involving electronic or other voting machines
–Litigation over which provisional ballots are valid
–A fight over the Colorado amendment to split the electoral vote
–A tie in the electoral college or a faithless elector
–A terrorist attack that disrupts voting in a swing state

Poll reveals world anger at Bush

According to the Guardian poll, Eight out of 10 countries favour Kerry for president.

Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy

Over 650 foreign affairs specialists in the United States and allied countries have signed an open letter opposing the Bush administration’s foreign policy and calling urgently for a change of course.

The letter was released today by “Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy,” a nonpartisan group of experts in the field of national security and international politics.

Washington > Inspector’s Judgment: U.S. Report Finds Iraqis Eliminated Illicit Arms in 90’s” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/07/politics/07intel.html?ex=1254801600&en=48d79cbf21216c36&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland”>The NYT: Inspector’s Judgment: U.S. Report Finds Iraqis Eliminated Illicit Arms in 90’s

Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld and now this. It’s been a busy week for the Bush administration as they try to plug the ever increasing holes in their political dike. The report, released yesterday, found that IRAQ HAD NO WMD, and had no ability to produce them.

However, VP Cheney STILL holds to his twisted sense of reality by saying that the report justified the US going to war?!?! All I can say is WHAAAA?

Read the report in its entirety:

Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) on IraqÕs WMD 30 September 2004
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