Brazzil

...UNFORTUNATELY !!!!!!

But then....using your same arguments

...why change :

....street criminality ?
....police impunity ?
....lack of basic education ?
....lack of basic sanitation ?
....social inequalities ?
....hunger and poverty ????
....tax evasions ?
....money laundering ?

As you said No Big Deal ! That's the Way Things are Done in Brazil !!!!!!!

Everything I mentioned have the same roots as the roots of curruptions you are talking of !!! That is why we/you say....corrupted to the roots !!!!!!

SHAME ON YOU....FOR YOUR ARTICLE...AS IT IMPLIES THAT NOBODY WANT TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER !!!!!!!!!

BUT...it looks like YOU could be right !

So WAKE UP ! STAND UP...for a better democracy ! Because at the end...the citizens elected these people !

"SHAME ON YOU....FOR YOUR ARTICLE...AS IT IMPLIES THAT NOBODY WANT TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!!!!!!!!!”

That is not what Augusto Zimmermann meant with his article.

However, there are a lot of people blaming not only the fact that Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese but also blaming the fact that Brazil is predominantly Catholic.

Some others say that it is a mix of Portuguese and Italian culture, etc. Many actually are racialist and say that Brazil’s social problems exist because we have a large population of blacks and browns.

We should at this moment focus more on how to solve Brazil’s problems. I strong believe that if we invest more in education and implement better schools at all levels and make a deep reform in our judiciary systems, promoting more rigorous laws and modernizing our decadent system we would be on a surer path to a stronger nation.

Isn’t Professor Zimmermann?

Not (gasp!) "public concubinage!!!!!

Yeah. Things haven't changed a bit in over 500 years. Everything always remains the same in Brazil...

Friend, every one of those accusations was also leveled at English colonial officials, so I highly doubt that it's our "Luso heritage" which is causing the current scnadal.

In fact, all the aspects of the current scandal can easily be found in American politics, too, so why is this a "Brazilian" problem, exactly?

Because many people act like the world is divided in two: Brazil and the rest of the world. Brazil is crooked and the rest of the world is perfect without any problems.

Hi, I am another Brasilian worker who slaves away in a corporation and pays his annual sindicate fees as a union member and receive absolutely nothing in return that I can see of in terms of tangible service from the sindicate(not even a newsletter?). Now with 50,000,000+ sindicate members in Brasil, each paying R$100+ per year to there sindicates for very little or no service, you can still have a little surplus left over eh? That would make R$500,000,000 p.a. in sindicate fees less cost of running sindicate union (say 25%), it still leaves R$375,000,000 to throw at politicians to buy votes supporting the PT in parliament. That should cover the mensalação for a few politicians would you not think?
John

It is simply like in a school class ! Some are better than others. that is why ratings exist !!! Ratings are good only when done by neutral people such as the UN or neutral agencies !
The results in various classifications, such as :
inequalities, lack of health, lack of basic education, corruptions, tax evasion, money laundering, lack of social inclusion, impunity, street crimes, police killings ...etc etc...clearly show that you are by far not the best student in the class...but close to the bottom !!!!!

If you have other and better numbers and ratings published by objectives and neutral sources....please publish them !!!!!

SO SIMPLE !

As to the forum writer member of a syndicate...my answer is clear.....NO it is not enough to cover all their corruptions.
That explains Valerio loans, illegal kickbacks from the bingos, kickbacks from various garbage corporations to get the cities contracts, the post offices, the federal insurances, constructions...etc etc....

Dont forget that every of these people have a high standard of living, and costs are nothing as not supported by them but by illegal activities !!!!!
If it would have been enough...why are they involved in this crisis !!!!

Looks like you are very naïve !!!! This is how they want you to be....!!!!!

Ohhhh...by the way...if you have 50 millions syndicate members each paying R$ 100.- per year, this equals to R$ 5 billions, not 500 millions !!!!

Please review your copy...and your basic maths !!!! Smile.......

"The results in various classifications, such as :
inequalities, lack of health, lack of basic education, corruptions, tax evasion, money laundering, lack of social inclusion, impunity, street crimes, police killings ...etc etc...clearly show that you are by far not the best student in the class...but close to the bottom !!!!! "

No, you are the one in need to back up your statements. You should publish here the link (s) to the internet sites where the statistics are saying that we are at the bottom!

...read today article on this site about your own minister complaining about your lack of competivity following the Fiesp (brazilian federation, not foreign) study :
.....The study ranked Brazil 39th among the world's 43 most competitive countries.

As to the other points I wrote about, I invented none of them. They were/are all articles in this same site. So please read with more attention and more regularity !!!!

If you never heard about corruption to the roots...just read the above article...and so many others.
If you never heard or read that Brazilian ciities are one the most dangerous in the world.....just open your TV...or read this site or tother brazilian newspapers !

If you never heard about police killings of innocents, lack of education and all the other points I mnetionned, you are really a liar....similar to the corrupted politicians....who denie to be corrupted....despite proofs and evidences demonstrated ! But read again the above article !!!!!
I can go on and on for all the other points.

As you seem to be blind and earless...voluntarily, but also very lazy, and really stupid, please give me your e-mail adress and I will forward you regularly copies of articles from this site !!!!!!!
No doubt that similar articles appear everywhere in brazilian newspapers and TV news ! Suffice...to read or hear them !!!!

..another headline article dated sept 23 :

In Competitiveness, US Comes First and Brazil Is Almost Last in Line

Sorry....for you !

Corruption? No Big Deal! That's the Way Things Are Done In The USA
http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/voter_fraud.html

....anmother headline for you....dated sept 22 :

Brazil Blames High Import Duties on Its Own Incompetence

Statement from one of your minister !

Sorry....again....for you !!!!

And I think Zimmerman's a nutcase.

...dated sept 8 :

Brazil Among World's 10 Most Unequal Countries. 10% Get Half the Wealth

This is out of 177 countries...for your info !

You want more ???? Just ask...or reading your country news and statitstics.... by yourself....would seem more normal...to me ! But may be...like your politicians....you deny all the statitstics.... !!!! Even when they are done by brazilian organisations !

Cheers !

...dated sept 8 :

Corruption and Poor Education Put Brazil at the Bottom in LatAm !!!!!

Nothing to be proud of...!!!!

...there are not one, not ten, but hundreds more !!!!!

Now give us your numbers and your sources showing the opposite results ....please !!!!!!

Smile...................

...has nothing to do with countries comparisons as the ones we are talking of !!!!

But if you want to mix up everything....I could also say that Lula and the PT party
bought and paid in cash...alliances ...to get elected !!!!!

Furthermore, even if in the 2000 US elections there was a problem due to the small difference of votes....finally the supreme court declared Bush as president...and the opposition accepted the defeat...officially.

But in the 2004, Bush easily defeated the Democrats. Nobody....not even the ones defeated...said a simple wrong word about it.
What you dont know is simply how US presidents are elected. Citizens dont vote for a president...but for a ...what they call...a big elector...who will vote and name the candidate of their choice !!!!

Please review your copy ! Nil

I never said it was related to your prattling on and on that is irrelevant to the article above. The mere point is that corruption exists even in the US, but people here are deaf, dumb, and blind to it. I could site article after article about US corruption also.

As for comparisons, how about the one that shows that the US and the UK are at the bottom of social mobility among developed nations? Nothing to be proud of.

"But in the 2004, Bush easily defeated the Democrats. Nobody....not even the ones defeated...said a simple wrong word about it." I'm sorry, but did you not read this: http://www.projectcensored.org...fraud.html ? Try again, pal.

The article is called "No Paper Trail Left Behind: The Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election* By Dennis Loo, Ph.D., Cal Poly Pomona

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last election was in 2004.

.this is a simple article from an obscure source...that no one know !!!! Obscure and unknown....therefore not relevant !

...Show me a complaint or article from an official international agency...or from one or more leader of the Democratic party !!!!

The statistics in the articles I sent you...are from legitimate sources....U.N., brazilian recognized federations or actual minister !!!!

I never referred to a journalist opinion, from left or right, which would be only one opinion within many. An opinion is not a official statistic or rating !!!!

So simple....when one is fair and honest !!!!!

You seem to miss the not-so subtle fact that the article is among PROJECT CENSORED's top censored stories of the year.

An "opinion"? It's a thourough study! The evidence of fraud cited by the University professor is vast.

Oh, never mind. You're clearly an idiot. I'm wasting my breath on you.

...words that are only an opinion from an obscure source and totally unknown....despite the headline...but not officially recognized....and reliable sources, recongized, numbers and statistics !!!!

But so far.....you have not demonstrated anything...that show opposite offcial numbers and statistics...than the ones I have given you !

Simply.....because you have NONE...as they dont exist !!!!

....here is also an in depth study and
UNCENSORED BUT SIMPLE TRUTH :

With people like you.....mixing words, opinions from officially recognized numbers and statistics, no doubt you will delay a needed change of your country for the better !!!!
Cheers

".....The study ranked Brazil 39th among the world's 43 most competitive countries. "

You do have problems understanding what you read, don’t you? You are not an unbiased reader, isn't it? Have you carefully read the article without any preconception? I do not think so.

If you were unbiased you would say: good, the Brazilians are recognizing that they need to invest more in science and technology but, no, you had to see only the very negative side of it. Got my point?

I guess that you just want to antagonize. You distort everything you read trying to make your point across.

Although I am completely aware that Brazil has many problems in many areas, I also know that we have many positive points and accomplishments.

You and many others foreign critics are the reason why we Brazilians are so defensive about our country.

Unfortunately, we are so bluntly open to the world and because of that we pay a terrible price; we have to listen to craps from foreigners who have no sympathy for our country.


The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

Friedrich Nietzsche

In the whole world, there caanot be a people more prone to blaming others than the Brazilians. Listen to the ramblings of the comments. "It is the Americans fault, it is the Portuguese fault, it is the Italian fault, bla bla bla bla bla" You are simply, and non-arguably, a country of robbers, thieves and liars. Fact! From your uneducated bumbling president, the the lowliest dweller of the Rio and Sao Paulo favelas, you are all the same. There is an expression "should the pot be calling the kettle black?" Every other person in Brazil is a lawyer, either through a very limited time in "school", or payable "1 time" for the handsome fee of R$20,000.00. Your federal judges on average make R$12,000.00 per month, but own lavish proerties and house in areas such as Bara. Every police officer in the country is taught but 4 words of English, "do you have money". For Christ sake, wake up, open your eyes and at least be truthful with yourselves. You are a corrupt country, possibly "the" corrupt country in the world. It is what you do, it is how you do it, and never ever will change occur for you. Look around, and tell us in the next flow of comments, of the massive American or European investments surrounding you. Maybe you would like to comment on the employment building infrastructure projects ongoing in your "honest" country. For all the money the IMF sends your way, for all the investment you miss out on, this exists for 1 reason. You are a country of liars, cheats and thieves, noted globally, and contested no where, except within the walls of Brazil.

The arguement has been made above that the corruption is cultural in nature. Is this fair? Brazilians are disrespectful of any authority other than that backed up by the threat of immediate violence. When looking at the Gini index and Transparency International listings, there does seem to be overlap of the characteristics within the peoples of the countries at the top. Could it be said that these people are less evolved? More primal?

You're a broken record. Shut up already. You only have yourself to blame for being the moron you are. Wake up, open your eyes, and be truthful with yourself. You are a moron.

If someone points out that the US is corrupt, that's not blaming the US, fool. If someone points out that the US has amongst the worst social mobility statistics among developed nations, that's not blaming the US. It's just putting criticism in perspective. In light of the extreme moron (you're just a normal moron) questioning "genetics or culture?", it's not a bad idea to see things in perspective. People in the US live a lie, with their heads burried in the gound. It's no wonder they strut about and point their fingers at developing nations with an air of superiority. It's no wonder you get stupid comments like "Could it be said that these people are less evolved? More primal?"

The bottom line is: No one cares what you think, a*****e.

UNCENSORED BUT SIMPLE TRUTH :
You are an illiterate, simple minded fool. You've made that much clear to everyone.

We, the Brazilians, are so privileged that some superior beings like you come once in while to this site trying to enlighten us all dumb and dishonest primate Brazilians.

Those perfect, the masters, super-intelligent beings (Angels?) decided to turn their eyes to us and provide us with their profound wisdom and experience. They know always what they are talking about, we should listen to them!

They are masters, highly educated in the arts of enlightenment.

Listening to them is pure joy! How clever they are! They come from places where there are no faults or sins. They are illuminated with a superior grace.

We are so grateful that you, masters, decided to make such extraordinary analysis about our people and culture. You, masters, are so versed in science, philosophy, history and sociology! You carry an amazing amount of profound knowledge in those areas. Absolutely astounding!

Thank you!

The Brazilian People

On behalf of the advanced people; thank you.
I would like to share some more wisdom:
"http://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreEconomies/Default.aspx?economyid=28"
We are not angels.
Although we may seem advanced, this is just from your perspective.
We are actually normal people who want to party on.
Just like you.

What a shock! Now we have the revelation that the once thought to be an advanced people are actually normal people just like us the primates. How disappointing!

Now about the link to the site you have referred. I wonder why the US is not at the top since it is the most capitalist country in the world.

It seems that New Zealand is one of the best place to start a business according to that site but I doubt that people would choose the US or even Brazil over New Zealand, if they could make that choice.

New Zealand, for example, is showing that they have done some work in facilitating the process of running a business there but it may be not as advantageous as we may think. I do not know if the process in New Zealand is actually working in creating business faster than in Brazil, for example. Is it?

Statistics can mislead in many cases. A table showing statistical data could mean nothing if you do not take in account many other factors. As a trained scientist, I know that pretty well.

Look my country, for example, Brazil; it is one the strongest economy in the world. However, we have by now a big population which is growing almost as fast as our GDP. We are poor because our GDP per capita is low. The economical indexes about Brazil are impressive and improving every day however this means very little for most of the population marginalized from this process.

The above writer "Re:You're Welcome" misuderstood the statement:

"We are actually normal people who want to party on.
Just like you. "

Evidence:

"What a shock! Now we have the revelation that the once thought to be an advanced people are actually normal people just like us the primates. How disappointing!"

Obviously, the original poster's meaning was that Brazilians want to party on as do Normal people. The difference is that the above poster defines the Brazilians as "Primates" rather than "more primal" in the "genetics or culture?" post and somehow this is supposed to be different than humans.

Why would you refer to Brazilians as primates? What else could they be?

You're the "trained scientist". Please tell the world how humans are different than Brazilians.

I'll bet you were "trained" in Brazil.

Am I right?

“I'll bet you were "trained" in Brazil.”

Wrong! I was trained mostly in the USA.

I used the term "primates" with sarcasm because people like you are hideously racist.

You are a Nazi with a complex of superiority while suffering delusions about your own greatness.

Just what the hell are you guys arguing about?

US political corruption/cronyism: A short list:

Tom DeLay indicted on a charge of conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme. (He and his friends are crying "Innocent until proven guilty!" as newly converted civil libertarians. LOL!)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist facing an SEC charge that he dumped stock based on insider information. The stock he owned was from HCA, Inc., a company his family founded. Almost immediately after Frist dumped his stock, the value of those holdings dropped nine percent. (Innocent until proven guilty, folks.)

A little more than a week ago, the White House's top federal procurement officer, David Safavian, was arrested for lying and obstructing a criminal probe against super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Safavian is part of a larger investigation surrounding Abramoff's indictment on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Names implicated charges include GOP Rep. Robert Ney of Ohio, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist. Safavian resigned his White House post on the day he was arrested to spare the president the embarrassment of having him put in handcuffs right there inside 1600 Pennsylvania. (Innocent until proven gulity folks.)

Michael “you’re doin’ a heckovajob Brownie” Brown, former show horse guy, totally unqualified to run FEMA, but appointed because he’s buddies with Bush and college room mate of the former FEMA chief, resigns in disgrace for his miserable handling of hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton. One could write for pages. The name is synonymous with corruption. VP Dick Cheny, former CEO of the company, is still on the payroll. They get billions in contracts for “services” in Iraq, Afghanistan, and yes, now New Orleans post Katrina. That’s for services they charged for but never provided to American troops. Oh, then there’s also the several hundred millions gone missing in Iraq. Oh, just go here for more: http://www.independent-media.t...20Reported

The election fraud in 2002 and 2004. It’s real folks. Just read the article cited above at http://www.projectcensored.org...fraud.html

Bush also used daddy’s influence to get him out of the army and into a stateside gig, which he failed to complete. That’s just the start, folks. You can find more if you just look.

So, let's not lose perspective here. Corruption is a way of life even here in the great USofA.

Your need to be a complete imbecile To believe that the 2004 US election was won on the basis of fraud.

Bush was not just the great winner of the last America presidential election, but also become the most voted president in the entire history of the United States.

And God Bless America for this!

Right. Professor Dennis Loo is a "complete imecile and you're a genius.

Rather, you have to be a complete imbecile to say: "Bush was not just the great winner of the last America presidential election, but also become the most voted president in the entire history of the United States." You have thoroughly demonstrated that you are just that . . . a complete imbecile.

The only thing you should be blessing God for is that you can feed yourself you moron.

From Prof. Loo's article:

"In order to believe that George Bush won the November 2, 2004 presidential election, you must also believe all of the following extremely improbable or outright impossible things.(1)

1) A big turnout and a highly energized and motivated electorate favored the GOP instead of the Democrats for the first time in history.(2)

2) Even though first-time voters, lapsed voters (those who didn’t vote in 2000), and undecideds went for John Kerry by big margins, and Bush lost people who voted for him in the cliffhanger 2000 election, Bush still received a 3.5 million vote surplus nationally.(3)

3) The fact that Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republicans’ votes that he got in 2000, receiving in 2004 more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 47 out of 67 Florida counties, 200% of registered Republicans in 15 counties, and over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties, merely shows Floridians’ enthusiasm for Bush. He managed to do this despite the fact that his share of the crossover votes by registered Democrats in Florida did not increase over 2000 and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points.(4)

4) The fact that Bush got more votes than registered voters, and the fact that by stark contrast participation rates in many Democratic strongholds in Ohio and Florida fell to as low as 8%, do not indicate a rigged election.(5)

5) Bush won re-election despite approval ratings below 50% - the first time in history this has happened. Truman has been cited as having also done this, but Truman’s polling numbers were trailing so much behind his challenger, Thomas Dewey, pollsters stopped surveying two months before the 1948 elections, thus missing the late surge of support for Truman. Unlike Truman, Bush’s support was clearly eroding on the eve of the election.(6)

6) Harris' last-minute polling indicating a Kerry victory was wrong (even though Harris was exactly on the mark in their 2000 election final poll).(7)

7) The “challenger rule” - an incumbent’s final results won’t be better than his final polling - was wrong;(

On election day the early-day voters picked up by early exit polls (showing Kerry with a wide lead) were heavily Democratic instead of the traditional pattern of early voters being mainly Republican.

9) The fact that Bush “won” Ohio by 51-48%, but this was not matched by the court-supervised hand count of the 147,400 absentee and provisional ballots in which Kerry received 54.46% of the vote doesn’t cast any suspicion upon the official tally.(9)

10) Florida computer programmer Clinton Curtis (a life-long registered Republican) must be lying when he said in a sworn affidavit that his employers at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) and Tom Feeney (general counsel and lobbyist for YEI, GOP state legislator and Jeb Bush’s 1994 running mate for Florida Lt. Governor) asked him in 2000 to create a computer program to undetectably alter vote totals. Curtis, under the initial impression that he was creating this software in order to forestall possible fraud, handed over the program to his employer Mrs. Li Woan Yang, and was told: “You don’t understand, in order to get the contract we have to hide the manipulation in the source code. This program is needed to control the vote in south Florida.” (Boldface in original).(10)

11) Diebold CEO Walden O’Dell’s declaration in a August 14, 2003 letter to GOP fundraisers that he was "committed to helping Ohio to deliver its electoral votes to the president next year" and the fact that Diebold is one of the three major suppliers of the electronic voting machines in Ohio and nationally, didn’t result in any fraud by Diebold.

12) There was no fraud in Cuyahoga County Ohio where they admitted counting the votes in secret before bringing them out in public to count..

13) CNN reported at 9 p.m. EST on election evening that Kerry was leading by 3 points in the national exit polls based on well over 13,000 respondents. Several hours later at 1:36 a.m. CNN reported that the exit polls, now based on a few hundred more - 13,531 respondents - were showing Bush leading by 2 points, a 5-point swing. In other words, a swing of 5 percentage points from a tiny increase in the number of respondents somehow occurred despite it being mathematically impossible.(11)

14) Exit polls in the November 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections, paid for in part by the Bush administration, were right, but exit polls in the U.S., where exit polling was invented, were very wrong.(12)

15) The National Election Pool’s exit polls (13) were so far off that since their inception twenty years ago, they have never been this wrong, more wrong than statistical probability indicates is possible.

16) In every single instance where exit polls were wrong the discrepancy favored Bush, even though statistical probability tells us that any survey errors should show up in both directions. Half a century of polling and centuries of mathematics must be wrong."

* * *

"FOOTNOTES:
* This article has been revised slightly from the original version posted here and printed in Censored 2006.

(1) Several of the items in this list feature Ohio and Florida because going into the election it was universally understood that the outcome hinged on these swing states.

'TruthIsAll' on the DemocraticUnderground.com offered a list that is similar in format to my highly improbables and utterly impossibles list of the 2004 election results and I have drawn directly from their list for items #6 and 7. (http://www.democraticundergrou...z=view_all &address=203x22581), retrieved June 4, 2005.

(2) High turnout favors Democrats and more liberal-left candidates because the groups who participate the least and most sporadically in voting are from lower socio-economic groups who generally eschew more conservative candidates.

(3) Seventeen percent of election 2004 voters did not vote in 2000. This includes both first-time and lapsed voters. Kerry defeated Bush in this group 54 percent to 45 percent. (Katharine Q. Seelye, "Moral Values Cited as a Defining Issue of the Election," The New York Times, November 4, 2004). This data contradicts the widely held belief that Bush owes his victory to mobilizing conservative evangelicals and getting out the Republican base.

(4) Gore carried the 2000 Florida Independent vote by only 47 to 46 percent whereas Kerry carried them by a 57 percent to 41 percent margin. In 2000 Bush received 13% of the registered Democratic voters votes and in 2004 he got the virtually statistically identical 14% of their votes. Sam Parry, "Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies," Consortiumnews.com, November 9, 2004.

See also Colin Shea's analysis: "In one county, where 88% of voters are registered Democrats, Bush got nearly two-thirds of the vote--three times more than predicted by my model. In 21 counties, more than 50% of Democrats would have to have defected to Bush to account for the county result; in four counties at least 70% would have been required. These results are absurdly unlikely." http://www.freezerbox.com/arch...asp?id=321

(5) "[C]ertified reports from pro-Kerry Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County, [showed] Š precincts with turnouts of as few as 22.31 percent (precinct 6B), 21.43 percent (13O), 20.07 percent (13F), 14.59 percent (13D), and 7.85 percent (6C) of the registered voters. Thousands of people in these precincts lined up for many hours in the rain in order, it would appear, not to vote.

"Meanwhile, in pro-Bush Perry County, the voting records certified by Secretary of State Blackwell included two precincts with reported turnouts of 124.4 and 124.0 percent of the registered voters, while in pro-Bush Miami County, there were precincts whose certified turnouts, if not physically impossible, were only slightly less improbable. These and other instances of implausibly high turnouts in precincts won by Bush, and implausibly low turnouts in precincts won by Kerry, are strongly suggestive of widespread tampering with the vote-tabulation processes." Michael Keefe, "The Strange Death of American Democracy: Endgame in Ohio," http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KEE501A.html , retrieved May 31, 2005.

(6) "Bush's job approval has slipped to 48% among national adults and is thus below the symbolically important 50% point." "Questions and Answers With the Editor in Chief, Frank Newport, Editor in Chief, The Gallup Poll, November 2, 2004, http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=13948&pg=1, retrieved on May 27, 2005.

As Newport further notes, referring to the final Oct. 29-31, 2004 CNN/USA Today /Gallup poll, "Among all national adults, 49% now choose Kerry as the candidate best able to handle Iraq, while 47% choose Bush. This marks a significant pickup on this measure for Kerry, who was down nine points to Bush last week. In fact, Kerry has lost out to Bush on this measure in every poll conducted since the Democratic convention."

"Bush's margin over Kerry as the candidate best able to handle terrorism is now seven points. 51% of Americans choose Bush and 44% choose Kerry. This again marks a significant change. Last week, Bush had an 18-point margin over Kerry, and the 7-point advantage is the lowest yet for Bush." In other words, momentum was on Kerry's side, with Bush losing 9 points of support on Iraq and 11 points on handling terrorism over the course of one week! This was hardly a sign of someone about to win by 3.5 million votes.

(7) http://www.harrisinteractive.c...sp?PID=515 , dated November 2, 2004, retrieved on June 1, 2005: " Both surveys suggest that Kerry has been making some gains over the course of the past few days (see Harris Polls #83 http://www.harrisinteractive.c...sp?PID=512 , and #78 http://www.harrisinteractive.c...sp?PID=507 ). If this trend is real, then Kerry may actually do better than these numbers suggest. In the past, presidential challengers tend to do better against an incumbent President among the undecided voters during the last three days of the elections, and that appears to be the case here. The reason: undecided voters are more often voters who dislike the President but do not know the challenger well enough to make a decision. When they decide, they frequently split 2:1 to 4:1 for the challenger." For Harris' last minute poll results before the 2000 election, see http://www.harrisinteractive.c...sp?PID=130 , dated November 6, 2000 in which they call the election between Bush and Gore too close to call and predict that the result will depend upon the turnout.

( As Gallup explains, challengers tend to get the votes of those saying they are undecided on the eve of an election: "ased on an analysis of previous presidential and other elections there is a high probability that the challenger (in an incumbent race) will receive a higher percentage of the popular vote than he did in the last pre-election poll, while there is a high probability that the incumbent will maintain his share of the vote without any increase. This has been dubbed the 'challenger rule.' There are various explanations for why this may occur, including the theory that any voter who maintains that he or she is undecided about voting for a well-known incumbent this late in the game is probably leaning toward voting for the challenger." "Questions and Answers With the Editor in Chief, Frank Newport, Editor in Chief, The Gallup Poll, November 2, 2004, http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=13948&pg=1, retrieved on May 27, 2005. See also footnote 7 herein.

(9) Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman, "Ohio's Official Non-Recount Ends amidst New Evidence of Fraud, Theft and Judicial Contempt Mirrored in New Mexico, The Columbus Free Press
31 December 31, 2004, at http://www.freepress.org/depar.../2004/1057 , retrieved June 6, 2005.

(10) Curtis states in his affidavit that he met in the fall of 2000 with the principals of Yang Enterprises, Inc., - Li Woan Yang., Mike Cohen, and Tom Feeney (chief counsel and lobbyist for YEI). Feeney became Florida's House Speaker a month after meeting with Curtis. Curtis says that he initially thought he was being asked to make such a program in order to prevent voter fraud. Upon creating the program and presenting it to Yang, he discovered that they were interested in committing fraud, not preventing it. Curtis goes on to say: "She stated that she would hand in what I had produced to Feeney and left the room with the software." As the police would say, what we have here is motive and opportunity - and an abundance of evidence of criminal fraud in the Florida vote, together with Feeney's intimate connection to Jeb Bush. Curtis, on the other hand, as a life-long registered Republican - as of these events at least - has no discernible motive to come forward with these allegations, and only shows courage for the risk to himself by doing so. For his full affidavit, see http://www.solutionassoc.com/t...20604.pdf, retrieved June 1, 2005.

(11) Michael Keefer, "Footprints of Electoral Fraud: The November 2 Exit Poll Scam," http://www.globalresearch.ca/a...411A.html, retrieved May 31, 2005.

(12) In the Ukraine, as a result of the exit polls' variance from the official tally, they had a revote. In the U.S., despite the exit polls varying widely from the official tally, we had an inauguration!

(13) The NEP was a consortium of news organizations that contracted Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International to conduct the national and state exit polls. Warren Mitofsky created exit polling."

By omission, you must agree with the rest of the post regarding the corruption of the Bush presidency, right? Or are you that stupid too?

Of course the origin of corruption is usually business people paying to gain favors or some advantage over their competitors. The corruption of business people is limitless. This was observed even by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations where he noted that business people are always in a tacit conspiracy whenever business people get together the subject always turns toward their anti-competitive conspiracies. Here's a funny recent event. The soccer game-rigging scheme. Businessman Vanderlei Pololi was behind it. You want to find corruption and thievery, go no further than your local businessman. He'd sell his mother's bones if he thought it would advance his personal wealth.

full story at:

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=11975& fcategory_desc=Bush%20Administration%20Lies%20and%20Dec
eit

Enjoy It.... Short Live the Chimp (GW Bsuh)

Of course, the list of corrupt acts above missed the act of treason, i.e., the outing of Valerie Plame. How could I have forgotten that one! Corrupt and traitors! And the moron thinks God has blessed the US? LOL!

Who cares about the US?
Brazil is way more corrupt. From top to bottom, people are looking to break the rules.
It is even a cultural phenom: "jeitinho"
There are books written in English about this because there is no translation for the term.
The attitude just doesn't exist in the West.
Anyone who defends it is part of the problem and probably benefits from the gross inequality that it promotes.
You should be ashamed. Instead you are proud.
That is the problem.

"The attitude just doesn't exist in the West."

That's such bulls**t, I can't believe it. There are subtle differences in how "westerners" (I didn't know that Brazil was in the East) bend and break the laws, but to say the attitude doesn't exist is hooey. Brazilians do what they do to get by and get through the beureaucracy. The common person finds ways to do this, even if it means bending the rules. In the west, people are bending and breaking the law all the time. People don't report all the money they earn, for example. The difference is that the little person is forced to bend the rules in the west, whereas the wealthy have an elaborate system of preferences that render them pretty much above the law, except on the rare occasion when they get too arrogant and fly too high to avoid punishment. The wealthy have that in spades in Brazil, but there is just so much crap to deal with in Brazil that a lot of the time with jeitinho the common person gets by with bending the rules too. You just don't understand life in Brazil if you don't understand this. And how dare you judge people and say that they should be ashamed! You haven't a clue.

"Brazil is way more corrupt"? You must be kidding. If way more means it's more democratic, then yes. If you want to compare the corruption, for example, that the wealthy and corporations get away with in the US, there's no comparison.

"You should be ashamed. Instead you are proud."

Physician, heal thyself! You are so blind to the truth of what goes on "in the west" that you are proud when YOU should be ashamed at how ignorant you are.

While it's probably true that there is no national government in the world that is free from corruption, the degree of law enforcement, transparency, and accountability vary quite a bit. Brazil's civil and military police should earn enough of a salary to consider occasionally risking their lives in the line of duty. If the police made more money they wouldn't be as susceptible to bribes and they would feel more motivated to provide law enforcement. Also, I think Brazil would benefit from enacting legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley in the US so the wealthy elite can't "cook the books", artificially inflating the market value of their corporations so they can pocket the difference. Both politicians and businessmen in Brazil need to be constantly scrutinized, laws enforced against them, and there needs to be a greater sense of transparency and accountability. The fact that 10% of Brazil's population owns 50% of the wealth is criminal enough. We shouldn't just throw up our hands and declare "Oh, well!". The US, since enacting Sarb-Ox, has encarcerated dozens of corporate big whigs for their accounting fraud schemes. Brazil desperately needs similar legislation to get headed on the right track.

AND THIS LOO IS A LOONATIC!

Can a serious academic be called Loo?

You're calling ME a Loo? Instead of slinging silly insults why not address some of my points? The main point is this: laws are meaningless unless the police and legal system can effectively enforce them against all citizens, regardless of socio-economic class. And Brazil has the gall to make fun of American police officers with their "f**ker and Sucker" comedy sketches! As a Brazilian friend of mine once said after spending several months in the US: "The American police are real police, whereas the Brazilian police are crooks."

i am married to a brzilian man,i am a born us citezen.since my marriage to this man i have been exposed to more criminal activity than i could ever have imagined. i have met many brazilian people and 75% of them are liars , cheats,and thieves including the one i married. once my divorce has been finalized,i will be on a mission to get as many of these criminals deported or at least locked up as possible.beware to all imigrants who come to my beloved country to disreguard rules, laws,morals .take your crime back home we dont want you here.

THE ABOVE POSTER SHOULD HAVE BEEN WARNED! BUT SHE MARRIED A ILLEGAL BRAZILIAN IN THE USA SO HE COULD ADJUST HIS STATUS (GREEN CARD).THIS IS CALLED MARRIAGE FRAUD WHICH IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE. SHE COULD REPORT HIM TO THE IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES AND HE WOULD BE FACING 10 YEARS IN A US PRISON AND DEPORTATION. ILLEGALS ARE PREYING ON US CITIZENS OFFERING MONEY IN SOME CASES TO PULL THIS OFF. I SUGGEST ANY AMERICANS CONFRONTED BY THIS DECEPTION TO REPORT THESE INDIVIDUALS TO THE US IMMIGRATION CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT ( I.C.E.) AS FOR HER WISH TO EXPEL ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM THE U.S. FORTUNATELY THE NOOSE IS TIGHTNING.THEIR FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS WILL SUBJECT THEM TO IMPRISONMENT IN A US PRISON FOLLOWED BY DEPORTATION.THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ARE WELL AWARE OF THE ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THEIR FRAUDS AND DECEPTIONS. AND THEIR RESPONSE TO THESE CRIMINALS IS IN MOTION!!!!!