read Grep Palast, he knows the score - and how both 2000 and 2004 were taken from voters under their feet.

Here’s an ugly little secret about American democracy: We don’t count all the votes. In 2004, based on the data from the US Elections Assistance Commission, 3,006,080 votes were not counted: “spoiled,” unreadable and blank ballots; “provisional” ballots rejected; mail-in ballots disqualified.

This Tuesday, it will be worse. Much worse.

That’s what I found while traveling the nation over the last year for BBC Television and Rolling Stone Magazine, working with voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This we guarantee: there will be far more votes disappeared by Tuesday night than the three million lost in 2004. A six-million vote swipe, quite likely, shifts 4 percent of the ballots, within the margin of error of the tightest polls.

Begin with this harsh statistic: since the last election, more than ten million voters have been purged from the nation’s vote registries. And that’s just the start of the steal.

If the noncount were random, it wouldn’t matter. But it’s not random. A US Civil Rights Commission analysis shows that the chance a black voter’s ballot will “spoil” or be blank is 900 percent higher than a white voter’s.

Does that mean the election’s stolen and you should forget voting and just go back to bed for four years? Hell, no. It means you vote and vote smart, learn how to pry their filthy little hands off your ballot (there’s a link at the end).

by Amy Pearson, is my pick of the month at the Zuda competition. thing is, it’s at 3rd in the competition’s last week. get in there, rate it 5 stars and click ‘VOTE’.

more: http://mathema-comic.blogspot.com/
http://magpiepencil.blogspot.com/

The discovery of Mathema would allow anyone to access ancient mystic powers, however, as soon as the secret is revealed it is threatened.
A group of sorcerers with Natural Born Power aim to keep it for themselves - calling themselves the ‘True’.
Emery Hall - considered troublesome by his father - is sent away and is at the Mathema lecture when it is attacked by the True. He escapes with the Mathema device and William Wenbury - the young son of Mathema’s discoverers.
Escaping does not prove the end and they must find a way to protect the secret before they are silenced.
William - taught by his parents - can use Mathema better than anyone else; he hopes the skills will help him survive long enough to tell of his parents’ work. Emery finds his own secrets and fears his loyalty to Mathema may become unclear.
Beth a young, forward thinking sorceress believes Emery can help her stop the elitist True. But first she must earn Emery and William’s trust and help them survive. Emery’s task is complicated further when a member of his family presents yet another claim on Mathema.

seen at The Beat

as more news approach us, i’ve decided to create an email newsletter separate to my own personal one.

it’s not an email discussion list, it’s an announcement \ resources feed with info relevant to readers and retailers.

if you want in on it, send a blank email to themajor-subscribe@googlegroups.com or let me know.

http://groups.google.com/group/themajor

me escreve, cara. meus emails pra ti tão voltando. tenho boas notícias.

estou cozinhando material novo pro universo do personagem, e atrás de ilustradores p\ HQs curtas em PB. interessados favor escreverem pro hectorlim@gmail.com [não rola grana, mas sim divulgação do trabalho].

tudo bem?

faz tempo, né? então, as coisas por aqui devem voltar a esquentar aos poucos. novas HQs, material de pesquisa, arte etc.

respondi hoje a uma grande entrevista sobre o Major que revela muita coisa que imagino ser interessante pros leitores e assim que ela estiver no ar aviso aqui.

>> COMECE A LER A HQ AQUI < <

O Paulo Ramos, jornalista que faz o Blog Dos Quadrinhos, resolveu aproveitar o Dia da HQ Nacional pra fazer uma compilação de links para webcomics enviados pelos seus autores.

na atual situação tanto brasileira quanto mundial, é prova de como o cara está antenado e de como o futuro já chegou. valeu, Paulo!

The big winners: Alexa and Compete agree on the top three webcomics: xkcd, Cyanide and Happiness and Penny Arcade. Those of us who believed in our hearts that Penny Arcade would remain the #1-ranked webcomic for the rest of our natural lives… we may need a moment to absorb that. The rise of xkcd has been greeted, belatedly, with a rash of mainstream media articles, gatherings of the fan base and other usual signs. Cyanide and Happiness’ gains have been a bit less perceptible, but its canny use of online video and community-building has served it well. Both sites have done well by adapting to certain changes in the Web, and in its audience– but that’s another blog post.

Ssseeenti-do!

Acabei de dar uma geral no site. fiquei sabendo através de uma leitora que os anúncios Google estavam se sobrepondo às páginas da HQ pra quem acessa o themajor.org com um monitor de resolução 800x600.

então tirei os anúncios pra evitar que os leitores tenham que adivinhar os diálogos e coloquei-os em vesão menor na coluna da direita, onde acredito não vão incomodar ninguém. diminuí também o texto do cabeçalho por conta do mesmo problema, e acredito que o carregamento e leitura tenham ficado mais rápidos e claros.

ainda estamos no processo de aprontar a capa e as primeiras páginas da edição #2, que você vai ver online muito em breve. também vou postar - se a qualidade ficou boa - um pequeno vídeo emo do primeiro encontro ao vivo da equipe criativa do Major na cidade paranaense de Curitiba.

por enquanto é isso.

Dispeeennn-sados!