A Step Backward for Voting System Transparency
Pamela Smith writes for The Verified Voting Foundation: "On June 26, 2008, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah) introduced the Bipartisan Electronic Voting Reform Act (S. 3212). The press release accompanying the introduction of S. 3212 observes, 'the ability to ensure there is an accurate, reliable and transparent method for Americans to cast and count votes is fundamental to our democratic process.' Unfortunately, S.3212 falls far short of ensuring accuracy, reliability, and transparency in our elections and is likely to do more harm than good."

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Special-Interest Lobbies Pour Cash Into Judicial Races
Tim Jones writes for The Chicago Tribune: "Sixty-six percent of Americans can name at least one judge on the popular TV show 'American Idol,' while only 15 percent can identify John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court. That's according to a poll showing Americans are largely clueless when it comes to knowledge of the nation's judicial system."

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Hate for Liberals and Gays Drove Gunman
Shalia Dewan writes for the New York Times: "A man who the police say entered a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday and shot eight people, killing two, was motivated by a hatred for liberals and gay people, Chief Sterling P. Owen IV of the Knoxville Police Department said Monday."

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Audit Finds Millions Wasted in Iraq Reconstruction Contract
Agence France-Presse writes: "Millions of dollars were likely wasted on a $900 million army contract to build courthouses, prisons, police and other security facilities in Iraq, an audit released Monday has found."

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Offshore Drilling: We Have a Choice of Simple Confusion of Outright Lying
Adam Siegel, writes for AlterNet: "Every day it seems gas prices are edging higher. For almost a year, oil prices have increased by 1 percent per week. A year ago, $100 per barrel seemed a nightmare fantasy to many. Today, oil at that price is viewed almost nostalgically -- as the good old days. In the face of growing price pressures during an election year, the Democratic and Republican parties have radically different answers, radically different approaches to the challenge. At the end of the day, neither is dealing with the fundamental challenges facing humanity with full honesty. One party seems caught in confusion and disarray; the other is providing direct answers to the challenge based on fundamental dishonesty -- answers that will aggravate, rather than solve, our problems."

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Department of Justice Illegally Discriminated Against Non-Republicans
Lara Jakes Jordan, writes for The Associated Press: "Top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by letting politics influence the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges at the Justice Department, says an internal report released Monday."

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The Battle for a Country's Soul
Jane Mayer, The New York Review of Books: "Seven years after al-Qaeda's attacks on America, as the Bush administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be, a battle for the country's soul."

For the complete essay, click here.

How Ignorant Are We? Voters Choose... But Basis on What?
Rick Shenkman writing for TomDispatch.com asks: Is American ignorance of the outside world so great that it constitutes a threat to national security? Shenkman, the author of the recently published book Just How Stupid Are We? (Basic Books, June 2008) breaks down the results of the 2003 study on knowledge of world affairs to amusing, yet sobering effect. Alternet reposted the article as its lead story; it received 140,000 page views. The article also appeared on Truthout, Pacific Free Press, a blog of the History News Network; he was also interviewed about his book on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, by U.S. News and World Report and on BuzzFlash.

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How Should We Respond to the Imploding Economy?

Danny Schechter on The Media Channel writes: "The question we face in late July, as regulators seize two more banks, is: Will we be engulfed by a further collapse in our economy or can the damage be contained, or, even turned around?"

For the complete blog entry, click here.

In Study, Evidence of Liberal-Bias Bias
James Rainey of the Los Angles Times reports that while the pundits on Cable accuse the broadcast networks of liberal bias, a think tank finds that ABC, NBC, and CBS were ** surprise! ** tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.

For the complete story, click here.