Sunday, September 24, 2006

What are we going to do when they don't count our votes again?


Colo. judge warily OKs voting machines

By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press

A judge on Friday chastised state officials for botching efforts to ensure electronic voting machines are tamperproof but cleared them for use in the November election, saying it was too late now to change course.

Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares said the secretary of state's office had violated state law by failing to come up with minimum security standards for the machines. He added that the office had done an "abysmal" job documenting which tests were performed on the machines and should not have allowed computer manufacturers to vouch for the security of their own products.

The judge said, however, that he would not bar the machines with the election just six weeks away and county clerks warning they might not have time to print enough paper ballots.

"The risks of decertifying them are greater than the risks of not using them," the judge said.

Many of the machines will be used in Colorado's most populous counties during the general election Nov. 7. A lawsuit filed by a handful of voters claimed the machines were not secure, suggesting the accuracy of election results could be in jeopardy.

Manzanares said the secretary of state's office still must issue new security guidelines after the election.

For November, he ordered the state to work with counties to come up with a plan to make sure the machines are kept under close watch.

After the hearing, attorneys for both sides met behind closed doors to talk about possible solutions. The state will submit a plan on Monday and lawyers for the 13 voters who filed the lawsuit will weigh in on Tuesday.

"I want to assure the voters that the machines are safe, their votes are secure, that they need to feel confident about their vote, and I encourage them to vote in November," Secretary of State Gigi Dennis said.

The lawsuit, filed by 13 voters, sought to have four types of the machines barred from use.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued the machines can be easily manipulated to switch people's votes, that state officials didn't take adequate steps to test or secure the machines, and that the state was under pressure from county clerks to approve the machines quickly.

They also argued they are not easily accessible to voters with disabilities.

Lawyers for the secretary of state's office said the machines have been approved by independent laboratories endorsed by the government and were reviewed according to state law. They also said the machines will print receipt-like paper ballots that can be used in case of a recount or audit.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Look at this, Show me the plane that hit the Pentagon

Where is The Plane? Tell me, where?


A picture I bet you've never seen before

Where's the plane?

No video this time, no long article either. None needed.

When you see the Pentagon from this angle (a vantage I bet you've never seen before), the reality of the situation is undeniable. Whatever caused this section of the Pentagon to explode and catch fire was not a passenger jetliner.

That's why you've seen photos of the Pentagon from every conceivable angle - except this one which lets you see what actually happened, and what didn't happen.

As you will clearly see, there is NO WRECKAGE from a plane the size of a commercial airliner.

There are parts that will remain no matter what such as engines and landing gears. The hole is far too small for a large plane.

There is no evidence of the broad wings damaging anything either side of the hole.

There should be debris all over the place including crumpled wings and the engines.

There should be seats and remnants of seats, there should be bodies or parts, there should be the tail section, yet there is NOTHING!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Spinning on Cspan - More lies to start a war

I haven't had time to blog. There have been a few thing I wanted to put on here but never had time.

FIRST
I was watching Cspan a couple of days ago. I could not believe what I was watching. Michael Schermer is an idot and knows nothing about 9/11. My head was spinning from the lies being told to cover up the truth. And then...Novak comes on right after talking about how all of this was a waste of time. NO, impeaching a president over a blow job was a waste of time. Outing a CIA is a lot worse for their "war on terror".

ON WASHINGTON JOURNAL
Friday, September 15
7am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls
8am - Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine, Publisher | 9/11 Conspiracy Article
9am - Robert Novak, Syndicated Columnist | Columns

Washington Journal Entire Program (09/15/2006)

Second
How stupid does the PNAC think we are? Telling the same lies to start another war. And yet...there are 32% who will still back this government.

U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel
Paper on Nuclear Aims Called Dishonest

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 14, 2006; A17

U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest" and offering evidence to refute its central claims.

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements." The letter, signed by a senior director at the agency, was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, which issued the report. A copy was hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna.

The IAEA openly clashed with the Bush administration on pre-war assessments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Relations all but collapsed when the agency revealed that the White House had based some allegations about an Iraqi nuclear program on forged documents.

After no such weapons were found in Iraq, the IAEA came under additional criticism for taking a cautious approach on Iran, which the White House says is trying to build nuclear weapons in secret. At one point, the administration orchestrated a campaign to remove the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei. It failed, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Yesterday's letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, was the first time the IAEA has publicly disputed U.S. allegations about its Iran investigation. The agency noted five major errors in the committee's 29-page report, which said Iran's nuclear capabilities are more advanced than either the IAEA or U.S. intelligence has shown.

Among the committee's assertions is that Iran is producing weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the town of Natanz. The IAEA called that "incorrect," noting that weapons-grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent or more. Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent under IAEA monitoring.

When the congressional report was released last month, Hoekstra said his intent was "to help increase the American public's understanding of Iran as a threat." Spokesman Jamal Ware said yesterday that Hoekstra will respond to the IAEA letter.

Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a committee member, said the report was "clearly not prepared in a manner that we can rely on." He agreed to send it to the full committee for review, but the Republicans decided to make it public before then, he said in an interview.

The report was never voted on or discussed by the full committee. Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the vice chairman, told Democratic colleagues in a private e-mail that the report "took a number of analytical shortcuts that present the Iran threat as more dire -- and the Intelligence Community's assessments as more certain -- than they are."

Privately, several intelligence officials said the committee report included at least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible to substantiate. Hoekstra's office said the report was reviewed by the office of John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.

Negroponte's spokesman, John Callahan, said in a statement that his office "reviewed the report and provided its response to the committee on July 24, '06." He did not say whether it had approved or challenged any of the claims about Iran's capabilities.

"This is like prewar Iraq all over again," said David Albright, a former nuclear inspector who is president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "You have an Iranian nuclear threat that is spun up, using bad information that's cherry-picked and a report that trashes the inspectors."

The committee report, written by a single Republican staffer with a hard-line position on Iran, chastised the CIA and other agencies for not providing evidence to back assertions that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

It concluded that the lack of intelligence made it impossible to support talks with Tehran. Democrats on the committee saw it as an attempt from within conservative Republican circles to undermine Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has agreed to talk with the Iranians under certain conditions.

The report's author, Fredrick Fleitz, is a onetime CIA officer and special assistant to John R. Bolton, the administration's former point man on Iran at the State Department. Bolton, who is now ambassador to the United Nations, had been highly influential during President Bush's first term in drawing up a tough policy that rejected talks with Tehran.

Among the allegations in Fleitz's Iran report is that ElBaradei removed a senior inspector from the Iran investigation because he raised "concerns about Iranian deception regarding its nuclear program." The agency said the inspector has not been removed.

A suggestion that ElBaradei had an "unstated" policy that prevented inspectors from telling the truth about Iran's program was particularly "outrageous and dishonest," according to the IAEA letter, which was signed by Vilmos Cserveny, the IAEA's director for external affairs and a former Hungarian ambassador.

Hoekstra's committee is working on a separate report about North Korea that is also being written principally by Fleitz. A draft of the report, provided to The Post, includes several assertions about North Korea's weapons program that the intelligence officials said they cannot substantiate, including one that Pyongyang is already enriching uranium.

The intelligence community believes North Korea is trying to acquire an enrichment capability but has no proof that an enrichment facility has been built, the officials said.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A film called "The Ground Truth"


Dear Friends and Family,
Next weekend, September 15, 16 and 17th, a film called "The Ground Truth" will premier at the Landmark-Kendall Theater in Kendall Square, Cambridge. It is about the hidden toll of the war in Iraq, and features returned Iraq War Veterans and military family members telling "the ground truth" about the war. The film played to rave reviews at the Sundance and other film festivals around the country. The film's director, Patricia Foulkrod, is a friend of ours. Many of those featured in the film are also dear friends. The Ground Truth is being released by Focus Features (they released Motorcycle Diaries, Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardner, 21 Grams).
Here is an excerpt from The Ground Truth's promotional materials:
"Hailed by Sundance filmgoers as "powerful" and "quietly unflinching, " Patricia Foulkrod's searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stun audiences. The filmmaker's subjects are patriotic young Americans, articulating their stories on-camera - stories that must be heard.The stories are those of a half-dozen American heros, ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service. The Ground Truth charts recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home - with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all -- the truth."
This is an excerpt from what the film's director wrote about the film:
"I tried to create a film that might blow the yellow ribbons off...and encourage people to really wrap their arms around our soldiers and their families. I wanted us to sit with the broken hearts and troubled minds of these young veterans, so we can take responsibility for their suffering that is being experienced in our name. And most important, I wanted to share with all Americans the profound wisdom these young men and women have to impart. Their first step to healing is our listening."
The address of the theater is:
Landmark Kendall
One Kendall Square
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 499-1996
In the next day or two, Landmark-Kendall' s website http://movies. aol.com/theater/ landmark- kendall-square- cinema/2081/ showtimes will have the specific show times for The Ground Truth for the weekend of September 15-17.
We urge everyone we know to see this film, and to tell everyone you know about it (feel free to share this email), and encourage them to see The Ground Truth on opening weekend. It will be premiering in several other cities across the country -- for more information see www.thegroundtruth. net
If you would like to purchase the DVD of The Ground Truth, you can do so at www.groundtruthstor e.seenon. com/?pa=mfso, and a donation will go to Military Families Speak Out for each DVD sold through that web address.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Hats Off to Keith Olbermann remembering 9/11

Keith Olbermann: This Hole in the Ground
09.12.06

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This Hole in the Ground
By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC Countdown

Monday 11 September 2006

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.

All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and - as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul - two more in the Towers.

And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.

I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.

However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast - of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds - none of us could have predicted this.

Five years later this space is still empty.

Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.

Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.

Five years later this country's wound is still open.

Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.

Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.

It is beyond shameful.

At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial - barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field - Mr. Lincoln said, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."

Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't.

Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all.

Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists are clearly, still winning.

And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it.

And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city, and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution.

The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.

Those who did not belong to his party - tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election - ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications - forgot that.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President - and those around him - did that.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."

They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by implication."

The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense."

Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country.

Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11.

Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own administration.

Yet what is happening this very night?

A mini-series, created, influenced - possibly financed by - the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes.

The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.

How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you - or those around you - ever "spin" 9/11?

Just as the terrorists have succeeded - are still succeeding - as long as there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero.

So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans.

This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country) suggests, even television programs can be powerful things.

And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."

In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm. Suddenly his car - and only his car - starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien. Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot - but he turns out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen manipulating a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the human machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves."

And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men.

"For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own - for the children, and the children yet unborn."

When those who dissent are told time and time again - as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus - that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American ... When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11" ... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?

We have not forgotten, Mr. President.

You have.

May this country forgive you.

Monday, September 11, 2006

The terror that happened this day... Remembering Them on 9/11






What I feel in my Heart
By MomFromHlwdFL
9/11/04

I see what I see every day,
All kinds of people acting different ways.
They say we are not for the Red, White and Blue,
It's all because we don't think like you.

I hear in the background the whispers of others,
They think we are doing good for all our brothers.
I fear the hate that they breed,
in my children's future they will bleed.

What happened to the peaceful souls?
Have we forgotten how peace grows?
It's not with the killing of other humans,
But with love all around, looming.

They come and take what is ours away,
And they say it is all OK.
Our jobs, our health care, our freedom are going
While we sit in Iraq and do more killing.

They fight the terror that happened this day
But I do not see it their way.
It is not the ones we kill in this war
it is others that will come back and give us more.

I feel in my heart that we will see the light
Just a question of doing wrong from right.
We all are humans, we all live here together
let your love shine and we will be here forever.







There has been so much death since the courts
decided Bush was our president.
So many have died because of the PNAC.


REMEMBER THEM ALWAYS
AND ENJOY YOUR MOMENTS, MOMENTS THEY NO LONGER HAVE
Life is Precious....
May Peace Be Inside All Of Us!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Recounting a fallen Marine's last days


Recounting a fallen Marine's last days
By John Fenton
The North Jersey Media Group

Tuesday 05 September 2006

In the four months since the death of my son, Sgt. Matthew J. Fenton, from injuries suffered in Iraq, I have stated many times the horror of what I saw in the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.

I believe that the time has arrived to tell the whole story of his death and the carnage that was inflicted on some of his fellow Marines. I do not find this easy to do, but as the death toll and injured number continues to climb, I cannot sit silently.

On April 26, Matthew, 24, was the gunner on a Humvee protecting a Marine convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah. A suicide car bomber attempted to ram his Humvee, and he got off a few shots at the vehicle. From what I have been told it is common practice for these bombers to detonate their bomb if they come under fire. Matthew was the only Marine injured in the attack. Later that same day I received a phone call telling me that Matt was seriously wounded and that it was a head injury.

The next day we were informed that Matt had been flown to Germany. Matt's mother, Diane, and I prepared to go to Germany. But in the middle of trying to get a flight, we received another call saying that he had stabilized and they were going to fly him to the United States. We were all lifted by this seemingly good news.

Diane and I flew to Washington the next day and were met by a uniformed Marine and driven to Bethesda. What awaited us there is still shocking to me now. We met with two doctors who laid everything out for us. Matthew's injury was a devastating one. Shrapnel had entered his head just above his left eye and traveled diagonally through his brain and exited the right rear.

'A Nightmare'

Surgeons in Baghdad had removed two plates from his skull to help relieve the pressure from the swelling of his brain. The frontal lobe was destroyed, so they had removed it. It was explained that the frontal lobe is the center of personality and the place where someone is aware of themselves. The Matthew that we knew and loved was gone and would never come back.

As we struggled with that staggering news there was more to come. The shrapnel had done severe damage to both sides of Matt's brain because of the angle that it traveled through. The brain can figure a way to control functions when one side is damaged, like in a stroke. But this was devastating news. The doctors told us that if this had happened in Vietnam, there would have been no surgery. If this happened in front of the best hospital in New York City, there would have been no surgery. His chances of ever having meaningful movement were less than slim.

Why, we asked was the surgery done in Baghdad? The answer, surgeons do whatever they can to keep a soldier alive. They do not decide life or death.

We were then led down a long hospital corridor toward my son's room. This is the moment that I will never forget until the day I die. Just outside his room we were instructed that we had to don gowns, masks and gloves every time we entered the room. This was to prevent us from picking up bacteria that Matt may have brought back from Iraq and spreading it to other patients in the ward.

My shock was doubled upon seeing Matthew. He was unrecognizable. His head was completely swollen, like some cartoon character. There were maybe hundreds of metal staples in his head. There were of course tubes coming and going everywhere. There were drains running from the site of the surgery. And there was the ventilator. I immediately snapped at the doctors. Somewhere along the line I had been informed that Matt was breathing on his own. Nine years ago I watched my father die after having lung cancer surgery. He never got off of the ventilator, and I flashed back to that time.

Matthew was able to breathe on his own, the doctors explained. The ventilator was only assisting. His heart and lungs were perfect. There had been no damage to his brain stem, which controls involuntary actions like breathing and the heart beating. So there we were looking at our son, not recognizing him, not a scratch on him below his eyes. But his face and head mangled and inflated. This must be a nightmare, one that we will never wake up from.

What War Leaves Behind

For days we made that walk down that long hallway. It took some time but I finally was able to look at some of the other Marines on the ward with Matthew. I wish to this moment that I hadn't. Kids with horrible injuries.

One had been in the ward for 11 months, after seven different brain surgeries. His wife refused to let him go. She was praying for a miracle. He had parts of his skull removed also, but all the swelling was gone now and his head had sunken in where they had been removed. He did not move at all.

Across the ward another Marine was in his third month, and his head was all sunken in. This is what lay ahead for Matthew also. Also across the ward was another Marine who was there only a few days before Matt. He was lucky, damage to only one side of his brain. I became friendly with his father, Jim, from Tennessee. One day there was an uproar from his son's room and I looked over and made eye contact with Jim. Maybe an hour later we met in the hallway and he apologized to me. His son had opened his eyes for the first time and his family just responded. There was no need for an apology as I would have jumped for joy if Matthew were to open his eyes.

All that was left was to decide when the life support would be removed. That final decision rested in the hands of his mother. There was no disagreement on what course to follow, just when.

On May 3, the Marine Corps commandant presented Matthew with his Purple Heart. On May 4, I noticed that the swelling of Matthew's head was going down. By the end of the day the indentations where pieces of his skull were missing were becoming noticeable. The next morning I was dreading what he might be looking like. And, yes, there was his head becoming very odd shaped.

Letting go

I prayed that Diane would find the strength to let her son go today. I did not want to see him decline another day. Another day of watching his head sink into his skull. And neither did she. Sometime around noon on May 5, Matthew was moved from the ward to a private room. Behind some curtains they removed the ventilator and most of the tubes. He was kept on the morphine, and we were assured he would not feel any pain. Now he was breathing all on his own. Diane got into the hospital bed with her son, and I held his hand and we all waited and watched for Matthew to pass.

But he would not go easily. After three hours of labored breathing, I asked the nurse if there was anything that she could do. No. I asked God to take him now. No. His mother told him to go. I asked him to go. Go to some peace. A half-hour later, he finally took his last breath.

This is the real story of the war in Iraq. We all know the numbers, and we all know the reasons that are claimed that we have to be there. But this is the reality: young, brave, patriotic men losing their lives for a cause that keeps shifting.

Every politician who supports the war should go to Bethesda or Walter Reed and see just what their support is costing in human life and suffering. And to everyone who opposes the war, don't just sit back any longer. Someday you may be touched personally by some tragedy from this disastrous war, and it will be too late, like it is for me.


http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/fenton.htm

A Marine with 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, renders a final salute to a fallen brother during a memorial service for Sgt. Matthew J. Fenton at Camp Baharia, Iraq May 14. Fenton, a 24-year-old from Little Ferry, N.J, was wounded in action April 26 in Fallujah, Iraq and later died of his wounds May 5.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Carlos and Melida Arredondo talk about Alex on Democracy Now

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
Father Recounts Burning Marine Van and Himself After Learning of Son's Death in Iraq

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When Marines came to Carlos Arredondo's home two years ago to inform him that his son had been killed in Iraq, he destroyed their van in a frenzy and accidentally set it, as well as himself, on fire, burning 30% of his body. Carlos Arredondo is now heading to Washington DC to join protesters at "Camp Democracy." We speak with Carlos Arredondo and his wife, Melida. [includes rush transcript]
For the second year in a row, activists convened in Crawford, Texas this August as President Bush took his late-summer vacation at his ranch. The gathering is called Camp Casey, named for the son of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. Casy Sheehan died in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

On Tuesday, Camp Casey followed the President back to Washington, D.C. to launch a new protest gathering: Camp Democracy. It's taking place over the next few weeks on the National Mall. In addition to the Iraq war, the event will also focus on other social justice causes at home and abroad. Events will be held around the rights of immigrants, workers, women, voters and victims of Hurricane Katrina.

On Friday night, as we began our 80 city-Breaking the Sound Barrier tour, we pulled up to Provincetown Highs School. In front of it stood a man and his wife with a coffin. Hanging off of it was an Army jacket and next to it, were Army boots. It was Carlos Arredondo and his wife Melida. They told me about his son, Alexander, who died two years ago in Najaf, on Carlos' 46th birthday. Carlos will be heading to Camp Democracy later today.

  • Carlos Arredondo, his son, 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, was killed in Najaf on Aug. 25, 2004.
  • Melida Arredondo, wife of Carlos Arredondo.
- Read Carlos' account in The Nation
- See photos of Alexander Arredondo and his family
RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: Carlos and Melida join us today from a studio in Boston. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Good morning.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Carlos, you became a national story, horrifying as it is to say that, two years ago, when you learned of your son's death, who was killed August 25th, 2004. Can you talk about that day and where you were?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Yeah. That day was my 46th birthday and -- my 44th birthday. I was in Hollywood, Florida, and I was expecting the phone call from my son Alexander who -- he never missed a call for my birthday, and pretty much I was outside my house, waiting for my wife to come home to celebrate my birthday. My mother was at the house.

And the next thing I know, three U.S. Marines, a casualty team, came to my house. And they pretty much parked in front of my house. And for a moment I thought it was a surprise from my son Alex. I thought he was home. And the next thing I know, they are out telling me my son Alexander, Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo was killed in Iraq, and no scripts for that kind of news. No scripts for that kind of situation. I pretty much spent almost a half-hour asking three different times the U.S. Marine team to leave my house. They never was prepared about the situation. They never asked me to come inside the house. They never supported me or helped me mentally, because I run around the house. I asked three different times to leave my house, and they still not leave my house.

My second time that I attempt to leave, I walk out with a hammer, five pound hammer, to pretty much ask them to leave my house, otherwise I’ll destroy their van, and still nothing happened. My third time, almost half-hour later, I asked them to leave my house. And at that time, you know, I walk out with five gallons of gasoline, a propane torch, and I started destroying the U.S. Marine van that was in front of my house with a hammer and destroy everything, threw everything all over the place and poured it with gasoline and then opened the gas -- propane torch, and which the van blew up with myself inside. Luckily I was near the driving side door, which explosion threw me out to the street on fire, and I get 26% of my body burned. And I’m still suffering that consequences, but I've been speaking --

AMY GOODMAN: Your mother had tried to pull you out of the van before it lit, and that set off the torch in your hand?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: That's correct. My mother was the whole time, was at the door screaming and yelling for help. And she doesn't speak English, but she was yelling so loud, you know, anybody can -- for the help that she was asking, nobody was around. The Marines was in the same spot the whole time. When I tried to reach the driver's side door, because the fumes of the gasoline was very strong, I cannot breathe, pretty much, that's when my mother reached into my hand and pulled me -- tried to pull me out. That's when I pressed the button which ignited the flames. That's when the explosion occurred.

AMY GOODMAN: And at that point -- as we turn to your wife, Melida -- at that point, Melida, you were just pulling up in the car?

MELIDA ARREDONDO: That's right. I had just turned the corner to the house, and I saw ahead something on fire, and I was perplexed. And I thought it was a house, and then I approached. I saw was a van. Then I realized the van was in front of my home, and then on the other side of the street I saw my husband with a Marine sitting on top of him, and my husband was burned.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened next?

MELIDA ARREDONDO: I pulled up. I tried to stop the car right in front, but the Marine said to me, "No, no, no! Go! Go! The van’s going to blow! The van's going to blow!" So I had to drive the car to the corner and then run back, and the van did blow two or three times. And as I approached Carlos, the thing that I noticed the most was his skin. He also had a shirt over his eyes with the Marine on top of him. The shirt was like over his head. And I tried to relax Carlos as much as possible, saying, "Relax, relax. Okay, calm down, calm down."

And finally, the Marine let go, and we got the shirt out from over his head, because my husband couldn't really breathe very well between the pressure and the smell of the smoke and everything. He did have some smoke inhalation. And at that point, we were surrounded by helicopters, press, ambulances, fire trucks, neighbors. It became sensational within seconds.

My mother-in-law said, "Here, here, the phone. It's Brian. It's Brian." She said it in Spanish. And Brian is my younger stepson, and he was with his mom in Maine during that period. And he asked, “Where is dad?” And I said, “Oh my God, Brian! Oh my God! Turn on the TV! Turn on the TV!” He did. He said, “What's going on? There's dad! There's dad!” It was being shown live in Maine, as it was all around the country. And I'm saying to him, “Yes, your father lost it. He couldn't deal with it, you know. Alex is gone and -- I’m sorry, Brian.” He said, “Well, I --“ Brian was basically almost crying, and he said, "Well, I called to wish dad a happy birthday."

AMY GOODMAN: And Brian then was seventeen years old?

MELIDA ARREDONDO: At that time, he was sixteen.

AMY GOODMAN: Sixteen. We're talking to Melida and Carlos Arredondo. Two years ago, Carlos's son, Melida's stepson, died in Najaf in Iraq. That was two years ago, Carlos. After that, what happened? Did you start speaking out right away? How long did it take you? And how long has it taken you to heal physically? And then we can talk about emotionally.

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Well, it pretty much, you know, it took some time, you know, just to deal with the mourning and with Alexander's death and also the issue about me not being an American citizen. I am a legal resident, and so I was trying not to get in trouble with that issue, because I might be deported. At the time when I was in the hospital, I thought I was going to be ended up in Guantanamo, because, you know, I pretty much targeted a U.S. government property.

And all that was taken care. I am still speaking out pretty much. Almost a year later, we started speaking out. And when the 2,000 casualty, whose name was Alexander also, that's when pretty much I put together my display that have been going across country, bringing to cities and towns, to Washington, to the Congress and everywhere I can, like asking people have a little bit of feelings about all this nonsense war.

AMY GOODMAN: Carlos, before we talk about the coffin that you take around the country, I wanted to go back to this issue of you being legal resident, an immigrant from Costa Rica?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, you have applied for citizenship but have not gotten it, even after your son died in Iraq?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: No, because the reason is everybody got to wait in line. And when I moved from Massachusetts to Hollywood, Florida, I ended up moving my documents to my new state, and so I ended up going to the last of the list -- line. And then when I move back to Massachusetts for my son's burial, also to come back to Massachusetts, my citizenship application ended up being once again in line, in the bottom line of all those applications that are waiting. And at this point, I’m not too sure where my number is right now in that line.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m looking at a letter. At Provincetown High School, you had the coffin in the back of a pickup truck. You had the Army jacket, the Army boots of your son Alex, and you have a whole display and a notebook of different letters. Among them is a letter from Alex that he wrote from sea as he was being shipped out to Kuwait, dated January 19th, 2003, right before the invasion. He writes, “I’m not afraid of dying. I’m more afraid of what will happen to all the ones I love if something happens to me.” When did you receive that letter?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Well, we received that letter -- that was his first letter home on the way to war. He was being transported in the Dubuque, this Naval ship that was on the way to Kuwait. And pretty much, as soon as I received that letter, I started sharing that letter to friends and family and people that crossed my way, to let them know if they can support Alex by writing him back, and pretty much I started then sharing these feelings and emotions.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: But you ask an interesting question, Amy. Actually --

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, Melida.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: There are -- there's a lot of communication blackouts, and at the beginning of the war -- I’m sure we weren't the only anxious family in the United States -- we didn't hear from Alex. So that letter was not the first communication. He wrote it before the war, as he was on the USS Dubuque, but what we actually heard first was Alex's voice on an NPR radio show by John Burnett, and it was totally a coincidence. We were on our way to walk our dogs in a local park, and the radio came in and we were listening because it was about Iraq. And then all of a sudden, John Burnett said, “And here I am with Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo.” Oh, my goodness! That was early March, mid-March. And then the letter arrived late March.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to break. When we come back, I want to ask you about Brian, your younger son, who, as we talked on Friday night in Provincetown, Massachusetts, not that far from Walpole, where you live, you'd said is being aggressively recruited himself, now 19 years old, by the National Guard. We're talking with Melida and Carlos Arredondo. They lost their son two years ago, August 25th, 2004, in Najaf. Carlos heads today to Camp Democracy in Washington, D.C. He will be one of the first people to speak tomorrow on the National Mall. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We're joined in Massachusetts by Carlos and Melida Arredondo, who lost their son Alex, Lance Corporal Alex Arredondo, killed in Najaf, August 25, 2004. Carlos, you have been pulling a coffin, whether in a pickup truck, as I saw you in Provincetown, or across the capital in Washington, D.C., in Waco and Crawford, you just came from -- the coffin that symbolizes the death of your son. Can you talk about this display that you carry and all that you have in it?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Well, I’m trying to honor my son Alexander and trying to do it as personal as I can. I cannot speak up for any other family. But also, I want to remind the American people for all those fallen heroes that we already lost, the American fallen heroes, at the same time, when I speak, I remind people, all the people who have been killed in Iraq, remember them and honor them and do something about this nonsense war. I also want people to understand and remember there is NATO forces. We almost have 250 NATO forces from El Salvador, Australia, England, Spain, you know, all these people who sacrifice their lives, and we need to remember them.

And the way I’m going around the country from the west coast to the east coast and letting know people what the situation happened to me in this case, how my son was recruited, how the notification team deal with my situation, and how it's been for ourself. Not all the families in this country, the Gold Star Families speaking out, it's very hard for them to come out and deal with the situation, but in my case, in Massachusetts, we have two families right now speaking out: the Lucey family and Arredondo family right now. We are working very hard to share our story to the American people. We have more than 50 casualties right now in Massachusetts. On Wednesday, we bury one more soldier here at home. Just last night, we lost one more soldier in Iraq from Massachusetts. And this is getting out of hand. And we don't even know the number in Iraq and Afghanistan or the citizens that’s been killed.

And my purpose of me traveling around the country is to let know people that we are fighting an immoral war. This administration has been pretty much doing their own thing their own way. And I’m coming from a third world country, Costa Rica. Right there, we have a free care for all. All by selling bananas and coffee, school for all the kids. So I am meeting with senators and congressmen to let them know there is something wrong with our picture, because being from a third world country, we can handle that situation. Why can this country cannot do it?

Also, one of the messages I got from people in the Congress, senators and congressmen, is pretty much that we need to draft this up together and let know the American people that we need to vote. 5% of the American people is what we have in the world. And when they make the wrong mistake, everybody in the world pay the big price. And right now, everybody paying the price for this nonsense war.

AMY GOODMAN: One of the things you showed me was a letter from the Army National Guard, and I wanted to read an excerpt of it, that came to your son Brian. It begins, “Dear American.” And it starts off by talking about why it's important to be in the National Guard, to serve in situations like Katrina, interestingly enough, where people said the National Guard didn't show up, because they were in Iraq. But it goes on to say, “You could be eligible for an enlistment bonus of up to $20,000 for joining the Army National Guard. What can you do with $20,000? A new car? Pay off credit cards? Help your family? It’s up to you. It’ll be your money, money earned by making a commitment to serve your country. Remember, the decision you make right now will have a huge impact on how the rest of your life turns out.”

Melida, I wanted to ask you about this letter and about the recruitment of your younger son, of Brian.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: Brian was planning to be a Marine. He always looked to Alex for guidance and wanted to follow his big brother's footsteps. Obviously, with losing Alex, he's really questioned that decision. At this point, Brian has not continued with high school yet. He has not completed it. However, the military has changed the rules, and you do not have to have a high school diploma or a GED anymore. You can earn it by going into the military and getting it after a period of time.

However, Brian and I and his dad and everybody who knows him has spoken to him long about this. And one of the things that I pointed out to him is, Alex trusted his brothers-in-arms and Uncle Sam to take really good care of him. Alex did everything right. And still, he was killed. Alex was killed by a shot to the left temple. It calls to question -- he did have his helmet on. It calls to question the adequacy of the gear that he had on. And that really got Brian thinking, along with all the other conversations that people -- he had with other people.

Brian tells me that he's received items from recruiters in malls, on the streets. He has hats, backpacks, lighters. They have gone all out in their marketing, and Brian pretty much has a pretty big collection of items that have been given to him to try to get him interested.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about Brian. Carlos, how would you feel if he decided to enlist?

CARLOS ARREDONDO: Well, it’s a lot that covers Brian from not to go there, but doesn't mean he cannot join if he want to. Of course, if he want to, I’m just going to try to do my best for him not to go. And pretty much, I’m telling him he know what we doing. I also, you know, am telling him the tactics the government was using on young girls and kids to pretty much seduce them. They say “volunteer, volunteer,” but I call it “seducing.” They seduce them with all these gizmos and all these offers of money and all that. They are walking around high schools, and everybody know how the tactics are, pretty much.

And pretty much, I’m telling Brian how they pretty much have been targeting now the immigrants. You know, the immigrants right now has been offered that kind of money and also the citizenship. And we already have a big amount, a number of immigrants who are fighting right now in Iraq for the citizenship. So, me helping Brian by giving this information, I just hope he not to go there. But if he feels the need for him to go there, as a father, I will support him all the way, and God protect him and myself. And I just hope for him to make the right choice and not to go.

AMY GOODMAN: Melida, how is Brian doing? He's 19 now, lost his role model, his big brother.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: Brian, himself, says, you know, “I’m bored.” Bored equals depressed. He's had a hard time holding a job, and he hangs out on the block, as I call it, with his pals or whatever. Last week I was with him and a friend, and his friend has taken the ASVAB, which is the exam to go into the military. And that has me concerned, because now his friends are his role models. Brian has told Carlos that he does not want to go in, because he doesn't want to see the same thing happen to his family that happened, you know, when Alex was killed. However, you know, he's at an age where his friends mean a lot to him. And finding out that this friend was interested in going into the Army did not make me feel as good about it as previously.

AMY GOODMAN: You live in Walpole, Massachusetts. It's known for the big prison there.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: Actually, we live in Roslindale, but that's where Alex is buried.

AMY GOODMAN: When I spoke to you on Friday night, you talked about your concerns about the options for young people, particularly young people of color right now.

MELIDA ARREDONDO: Yeah. The block, as we call it -- I live in Dorchester. I work in Roslindale. It's a part of the city of Boston. Brian is basically hanging out in different parts of town. And there's been a lot of violence this year in the city of Boston and outlying areas. Unfortunately, Boston now has been cast as a high place for crime. There were seven murders in seven days in the city of Boston, right in the vicinity of where I work and where my family and I often are together doing different events. And it has us all concerned.

Brian and Alex both have always said, “Don't worry, don't worry. We'll be fine, we'll be fine.” There's no way we can't worry about this. I believe that -- not just believe, but we know that there are three things that recruiters look for: people are who are low-income, people of Hispanic dissent, and people who come from single female-headed households. I found out this information with my husband from the GAO website after Alex was killed.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to have to leave it there. But I want to thank you both very much for joining us. We will certainly continue to follow events at Camp Democracy, Carlos, where you’re headed today, speaking out there tomorrow. Carlos and Melida Arredondo, I want to thank you very much for joining us and condolences on the death of your son, on the death of Marine Lance Corporal Alexander S. Arredondo, who died on August 25, 2004, Carlos's 46th birthday. He died at the age of 20 years and 20 days.

To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (888) 999-3877.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Did you vote? Will you vote? Fla returns are in...

I just can not believe people don't vote. It blows me away only 1 out of 9 people voted yesterday. What is wrong with us that we can't take 10 minutes out of our day to say who we want in control over our affairs? People bitch about gas prices, about insurance increases, about home values going up. They do all the bitching but won't show up when its time to voice their vote.

REALLY....no wonder the government get's away with what they do to us...

May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy


2006 Primary Election


UNITED STATES SENATOR BROWARD
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
LeRoy Collins Jr. (REP)
18.34%5,520
Katherine Harris (REP)
45.92%13,821
William 'Will' McBride (REP)
26.12%7,861
Peter Monroe (REP)
9.62%2,896

30,098
GOVERNOR / LT. GOVERNOR ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Charlie Crist (REP)
69.78%21,752
Tom Gallagher (REP)
27.35%8,527
Vernon Palmer (REP)
1.58%494
Michael W. St. Jean (REP)
1.28%399

31,172
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Milt Bauguess (REP)
11.43%3,161
Randy Johnson (REP)
49.03%13,558
Tom Lee (REP)
39.54%10,936

27,655
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS DISTRICT 17
73 of 73 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Kendrick B. Meek (DEM)
89.96%5,761
Dufirstson Neree (DEM)
10.04%643

6,404
GOVERNOR / LT. GOVERNOR ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Glenn Burkett (DEM)
2.44%1,744
Carol Castagnero (DEM)
3.57%2,546
John M. Crotty (DEM)
1.27%909
Jim Davis (DEM)
49.15%35,080
Rod Smith (DEM)
43.56%31,090

71,369
ATTORNEY GENERAL ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Walter 'Skip' Campbell (DEM)
71.05%47,537
Merrilee Ehrlich (DEM)
28.95%19,366

66,903
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 30
23 of 24 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Ted Deutch (DEM)
56.15%1,196
Irving 'Irv' Slosberg (DEM)
43.85%934

2,130
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 32
172 of 175 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Ben Graber (DEM)
38.14%7,285
James W. Haddad (DEM)
6.50%1,241
Jeremy Ring (DEM)
55.37%10,576

19,102
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 90
21 of 22 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Harvey Arnold (DEM)
15.41%316
Sheldon 'Klassy' Klasfeld (DEM)
16.77%344
Kelly Skidmore (DEM)
40.13%823
Len Turesky (DEM)
27.69%568

2,051
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 91
75 of 76 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Christian Chiari (DEM)
59.46%2,593
Howard Sims (DEM)
40.54%1,768

4,361
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 93
74 of 74 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Alain Jean (DEM)
30.68%1,890
Randy Smith (DEM)
10.94%674
Perry E. Thurston Jr. (DEM)
43.49%2,679
Sallie Bell Tillman-Watson (DEM)
9.17%565
McKinley Williams II (DEM)
5.71%352

6,160
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 94
49 of 52 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Andrew Lewis (DEM)
24.95%1,390
Matthew J.'Matt' Meadows (DEM)
75.05%4,182

5,572
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 95
57 of 58 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Chris Finnegan (DEM)
15.03%1,376
Amy Shapiro Rose (DEM)
40.00%3,663
Jim Waldman (DEM)
44.98%4,119

9,158
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 97
64 of 67 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Walter Birch (DEM)
36.31%1,863
Martin David Kiar (DEM)
63.69%3,268

5,131
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 99
70 of 70 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Arthur Palamara (DEM)
41.31%2,661
Barry Sacharow (DEM)
8.80%567
Elaine J. Schwartz (DEM)
49.89%3,214

6,442
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 105
58 of 58 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Joseph 'Joe' Gibbons (DEM)
51.95%4,417
Henry A. Rose (DEM)
48.05%4,086

8,503
COUNTY COMMISSIONER
77 of 81 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Barbara Sharief (DEM)
41.50%4,160
Diana Wasserman-Rubin (DEM)
58.50%5,864

10,024
CIRCUIT JUDGE 17TH CIRCUIT, GROUP 6 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Charles 'Charlie' Kaplan
61.49%60,105
Kenneth David Padowitz
38.51%37,647

97,752
CIRCUIT JUDGE 17TH CIRCUIT, GROUP 57 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Michele Towbin Singer
47.43%46,319
John C. Rayson
34.82%34,005
Samuel Lopez
17.75%17,333

97,657
CIRCUIT JUDGE 17TH CIRCUIT, GROUP 58 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Jordan H. Jordan
11.07%10,814
Marina G. Wood
32.21%31,458
Jim Lewis
25.99%25,389
Mardi Levey Cohen
30.73%30,010

97,671
COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 29 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Jill Levy
53.29%50,877
Nicholas 'Nick' Lopane
35.11%33,521
Stuart B. Yanofsky
11.59%11,067

95,465
COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 30 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Alan Marks
54.08%51,677
Robin Sobo Moselle
45.92%43,887

95,564
COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 31 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Arlene Simon Campione
29.49%28,436
Michael 'Mike' Doddo
13.77%13,275
Ellen A. Feld
26.48%25,541
Michael Alan Mermer
5.90%5,691
Christopher M. 'Chris' Neilson
24.36%23,494

96,437
COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 32 ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Brenda Lynn Di Ioia
31.10%29,423
Garrett Elsinger
9.92%9,390
Randy A. Fleischer
25.30%23,934
Terri-Ann Miller
33.68%31,871

94,618
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DISTRICT 1
114 of 115 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Carole L. Andrews
81.29%10,756
Vincent 'Jimmy D' D'Emilia
18.71%2,475

13,231
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DISTRICT 4
96 of 99 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Stephanie Arma Kraft
69.14%11,209
Jaemi Levine
30.86%5,003

16,212
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DISTRICT 6
103 of 105 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Fred Azrak
11.16%1,601
Phyllis C. Hope
24.57%3,524
Marty Martin Rubinstein
45.81%6,571
Stewart 'Stew' Webster
18.45%2,647

14,343
SCHOOL BOARD AT LARGE ALL PRECINCTS
756 of 773 Precincts Reporting


PercentVotes
Darla L. Carter
29.84%30,075
Jennifer Leonard Gottlieb
50.19%50,588
Ruth Roman Lynch
19.97%20,125

100,788