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can I keep it?

No, son, it's infested.

I use iTunes everyday and it's sucked ever since Apple bought SoundJam MP and renamed it iTunes. No wait, SoundJam MP sucked too.

iTunes is the hillbilly armored Humvee, sure it "works" sometimes but it's still an old clapped out rig with a bunch of crap bolted on to it.

http://www.bartcop.com/chick-jeep.jpg

Ford: dunno

Thought that wearing a slogan on your lapel was a good alternative to sound fiscal policy.
http://google.com/images?q=Gerald-Ford+Whip-Inflation-Now
Like all "small gov't" Republicans, left a mess for the Democrat who followed him to clean up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms#Gross_federal_debt
http://www.bartcop.com/natl-debt_Chart-2004.jpg

Reagan: His appointees.
Mark Fowler, FCC Chair. Threw out the Fairness Doctrine--resulting in "The Media" we now have that sucks so much.
James Watt, Sec. of Interior: The reason the British Petroleum fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico happened is the disassembly of regulation that started with this jerk.
...and the MAIN power that a president has (which almost EVERYONE overlooks) is to appoint judges; his Supreme Court appointees empowered corporations and screwed Joe Worker (the start of a long chain of such Right-shifted appointment policies).

Clinton: got caught getting blowjob from ugly intern with loose lips

Fat != ugly; if she had lost 30 pounds, you'd have done her.

Clinton:
NAFTA: The reason the Mexicans are coming across the border is that those farmers can't compete with USAian farmers who receive gov't subsidies.
(Perot was right on NAFTA--but had the "giant sucking sound" exactly backwards.)
...and Clinton wasn't a Leftie; his Right-of-Center policies further empowered corps at the expense of Joe Worker.

gewg_

> Bug or on purpose? Who knows.

When in doubt, always remember Bart's Second Law:

Any time a person or entity makes a "mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket, expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again.

http://www.bartcop.com/bartslaw.htm

> You know, they say the definition of insanity is doing the
> same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

And Bartcop's second law says that if someone makes a "mistake" that makes them a whole heap of money, then they will make the same "mistake" again and again and again. They keep making new protection scheme revisions, the content providers keep buying in and hardware manufacturers keep upgrading.

These protection schemes aren't a failure as you seem to think. They're accomplishing exactly what they're intended for.

Since we thankfully never fought a full war with the Soviet Union, we never had a chance to use the Tomcat for its intended purpose (in the Gulf War, Iraq refused to face our Tomcats, knowing its air force would be slaughtered).

1) Wouldn't you be saying the same thing if we had spent $100 BN on the F14 instead of $50 BN? Don't we have to draw the line somewhere?
2) It's not like the US was never in a war during the 34 years of the F14, actually there were quite a few: Vietnam (barely), Panama, Bosnia, the Gulf War, invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq War. (Any more?) So the argument that our carriers, subs, and air superiority fighters brought peace is a half-truth at best. Some weapons systems, from the Abrahms tank to the A10 Warthog and C130 airplane, seem to be workhorses that carry the load. Others, ironically some of the more expensive and highly capable(?) platforms like the F14 and Apache helicopter, cost a lot yet often seem fragile or inappropriate. I am reminded of this guy (a Democrat I might add), shrieking and red-faced, at Kerry for opposing a buildup in B-1 bombers, F14 air superiority fighers, and Apache helicopters in order to combat (of all things) terrorism. None of those exotic weapons has been worth its weight in tin in the fight against terror!

Tom Tomorrow says it better than I could:

http://www.bartcop.com/tmw-groundhog-day.jpg

I repeat:

read

This is not true, not true at all. In many states (like Washington) homosexuals are NOT a protected class. That means you CAN fire someone or not hire them because they are gay. You can deny them a loan or housing because of their orientation. Homosexuals would not get "special" rights under this bill. They would get the right to be treated the same as everyone else. Which many in the christian lunatic fringe have decided to label as anti christian bigotry.

relevant comic

>Oh...and SURPRISE...doing away with the electoral college would heavily favor the Democrats, since most of them live in those populous states.

In 2000, the Bush campaign decided that there was a chance they'd win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote. I guess they had their options covered for however the popular and electoral vote went. Here's the article.

In 2004, Bush won the popular vote by 2.47%, and Ohio by 2.10%. If there was a uniform shift of between 2.10% and 2.47%, Bush would have still won the popular vote, but Kerry would have won the electoral vote.

'A bill has been introduced to amend HAVA. H.R.2239 and its twin Senate counterpart S.1980, discussed further here, will amend the Help America Vote Act such that there is "a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy" attached with each and every ballot cast by every voter, and that "any voting system containing or using software shall disclose the source code of that software to the Commission, and the Commission shall make that source code available for inspection upon request to any citizen". Additionally, the three electronic voting manufacturers already have the ability to add permanent, individual voter-verified paper audit trails to their products. Some e-voting critics make it seem like vendors are resisting. However, it is the local election boards that are resisting (as well as the slow march of bureaucracy). The e-voting vendors will build - and sell - whatever municipalities will buy.' Thanks for the links to these Bills, its a little bit too though late eh? You say that the election wasnt "stolen", you simply dont know this. I agree with the slow march of bureacracy (which is exploited by the powerful), but Im definitely not inclined to believe that the 2 sister companies who create these voting machines are to be trusted at all until there is more disclosure suggesting otherwise, especially when you consider all the circumstancial evidence.. http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/6 .html/ http://www.bartcop.com/110904votes.htm/ FACT: Rep. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska ran the first "field test" of the voting software, running for senate while still CEO of ES&S. His company counted the votes and his victory, in a predominantly black and Democratic district which had not voted Republican in a hundred years, and involving a multi-point swing from pre-election polls, was considered by the press "an amazing upset."

LMAO, they'd never allow that. It's not in their interest. Better start writing to our congressmen eh? http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/6 .html/ http://www.bartcop.com/110904votes.htm/

I've been very intrigued at how the once accurate (within 2% accuracy to the actual voting numbers) exit poll data that has been used since 1965, the same methods being used across europe as well suddenly is to blame for the descrepancies in 2000, 2002 primaries and 2004 where opti-scan and other black box voting has occured.
Dr.Stephen Freeman of U of Penn, made a statisical analysis of the unweighted exit poll data of the 2004 election and came to the conclusion that the odds that the exit poll data could be that wrong in only 3 combined swing states together (Florida and Ohio included) was conservatively at 622,000 to 1. I have read a critique of his use of data, but essentially there was something majorly significant with the way the exit poll data differed.
Then of course you consider how the companies who create the machines are
1. major Bush backers, 2.Fought against paper audits of their machines. 3. Fought against the code being open to public scrutiny, 4. The software testing is done out of public eye, by a private company closely attached to the voting machine creators. 5. In 2002 Rep. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska ran the first "field test" of the vote couting software, running for senate while still CEO of ES&S (basically a sistercompany as Diebold, same software, machinesetc..). His company counted the votes and his victory, in a predominantly black and Democratic district which had not
voted Republican in a hundred years, and involving a multi-point swing from pre-election polls, was considered by the press "an amazing upset."

A very good summary of the facts...
http://www.bartcop.com/110904votes.htm/

You dont have to be a liberal or conspiracy theorist to be more than majorly alarmed at this.
Im surprised more americans are'nt up in arms.

I dont necessarily believe that just voting machines harmed the election, jeez, just look at the legal mess in Ohio right now in general...Hmmn maybe thats why Bush's ohio vote was ratified today, 6 days early:

"Judiciary Committee Demands Explanation of Irregularities in Ohio

Election Law Reform In a fifteen page letter to Ohio SoS Kenneth Blackwell, The House Judiciary Committee has asked for explanation of widespread voting irregularities in Ohio. These include:

1) Warren County lockdown - The admin building where votes were counted was locked down on election night and the public and the press excluded from the process. County officials claimed this was done in response to a terrorist warning that neither the FBI , nor Blackwell's office knew of,.

2) Perry County counting discrepencies - Poll books examined after the election show more votes cast than actual voters voting. Computer errors were blamed for other problems where votes were counted twice.

3) Perry County registration peculiarities- Very high percentage of registered voters in the county (91%) many registered in the same year and lacking signatures on file.

4) Unusual results in Butler County - A Supreme Court candidate for office received 5,000 votes more than did the Kerry ticket, whereas the Bush ticket got 40,000 more votes than the Republican judicials candidate.

5) Unusual results in Cuyahoga County - Unusually high votes for third party candidates (in one instance, 215 votes for one candidate versus 8 votes for all third-party candidates combined in 2000).

6) Spoiled Ballots - Undervotes for president in one county were as high as 25% (6,000 votes!), with a total of 93,000 for the state.

7) Franklin County overvote - 4,258 votes counted for a precinct with only 800 registerd voters.

8) Miami County vote discrepency - 19,000 votes were added to election totals that had been missed, all for Bush.

9) Mahoning County machine problems - Numerous voters reported problems with not being able to select Kerry on voting machines which defaulted to Bush.

10) Machine shortages - In Franklin County long lines were

smirking chimp
what really happened
bartcop
atrios

Buzzflash isn't a blog per se, but it is a presentation of selected news stories with brief commentary - which is what I consider blogging to be at its core. It is widely considered to be the most respectable progressive news filter.

BartCop is a more traditional-style blog with rantings of a particular individual - very funny and intelligent. What's the kicker? The blogger in question is a redneck okie from Tulsa, Oklahoma - and he's a hard-core liberal! Also includes "BartCop Radio" for subscribers.

Taste the lights, taste the action, taste the fame!

Oh, sonuva, I really messed up that link.

Atrios/Eschaton
Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo
Billmon's Whiskey Bar
Matthew Yglesias
Eric Alterman
Kevin Drum
Brad DeLong
Daily Kos
Digby
Mark Kleiman
Hesiod's Counterspin
Bob Somerby's incomparable Daily Howler

and the inimitable Bartcop
(and Fafblog)

You'll wonder how you got along before.

And oh yeah... watch for Shirley. :^)

Wikipedia has a link to a mirrored AP story from 2000; maybe someone with access can check newspaper archives to see if that's valid? BTW, the AP report states that it was in fact her boyfriend's car that she hit, and that he died as he was "thrown from his doorless Jeep", implying that he wasn't wearing a belt either. Sounds like he was at least partially to blame for being dead rather than injured, then.

Not just a lesbian; they've regularly accused her of *murder*.

And, speaking of the "Nazi card", have these people who complained *never* listened to Rush Limbaugh? Everyone's a nazi to him; he even coined the term "Feminazi". I was very amused when someone remixed Rush and turned his own words against him.

Please! Limbaugh has never once severely crititicized Bush or any other Republican. Where are Rush's cutesy little insults directed at Bush then? Where's the mocking nickname, huh? He gives other politicians and political movements insulting names (feminazis, etc.) and mocks them tirelessly. Did he do that to Bush too?

Sorry, you're confusing actual criticism and mockery for a little wink-wink between Rush and his dittohead listeners. "I'll gripe at Bush for this and we can all pretend that we're being fair and balanced. Wink-wink!"

Here, try this out for size. Look at Bartcop.com. Bartcop is a very popular, very funny and incisive liberal site that quite often rakes Dems and liberals over the coals. Here's an image of the Pink Tutu Democrats that Bartcop runs frequently, accusing various Dems including Kerry and Edwards of dancing on Bush's command. That's the tip of the iceberg too. There is no right-wing equivalent of that kind of mockery and criticism going on.

Please! Limbaugh has never once severely crititicized Bush or any other Republican. Where are Rush's cutesy little insults directed at Bush then? Where's the mocking nickname, huh? He gives other politicians and political movements insulting names (feminazis, etc.) and mocks them tirelessly. Did he do that to Bush too?

Sorry, you're confusing actual criticism and mockery for a little wink-wink between Rush and his dittohead listeners. "I'll gripe at Bush for this and we can all pretend that we're being fair and balanced. Wink-wink!"

Here, try this out for size. Look at Bartcop.com. Bartcop is a very popular, very funny and incisive liberal site that quite often rakes Dems and liberals over the coals. Here's an image of the Pink Tutu Democrats that Bartcop runs frequently, accusing various Dems including Kerry and Edwards of dancing on Bush's command. That's the tip of the iceberg too. There is no right-wing equivalent of that kind of mockery and criticism going on.

Hey, remember Gore? If he was so likeable and so deserving to be the President of the United States, that is, if he was truly the best man for the job 4 years ago, what has changed? Why aren't the Democrats demanding he run again?

Gore's not standing because he doesn't want to. There are a lot of people that wish he hadn't decided so.

Hmmm, can't hit submit yet because of the two minute rule, so here's a link for you to click. Nothing to do with the above, just a guy's blog that's kind of interesting. You might like it.

Some cool links:

• Democratic Underground - Bob Bouderlang is awesome!
• Media Whores Online - Excellent expose of the so-called "liberal" media
• BartCop - Not the brighest spark in the matchbox, but certainly a site well worth visiting.
• The Moderate Indpendent - Quite a good "mainstream" discussion site.

I know it's not what Limbaugh told you, but here's the truth:

As for the electoral vote, about 50,000 more people went to the polls in Florida intending to vote for Gore.

As for the popular vote, Bush was going to make a big stink if he won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote.

BTW, the picture I was refering to is here. As a Brit, I think most Americans will actually be more offended by his teeth in this picture than anything else...

but years of left wing network TV media

~The poor vote for Demoncrats because they believe the Demoncraticly controled media. They have no incentive to believ anything else.
Let me think about that a moment ABC (owned by disney, if i remember correctly has a strict anti-union policy) NBC (Owned by GE, very conservative company that contributes to GOP causes and pollutes the hudson river) CBS (Owned by Viacom, member of RIAA and MPAA) CNN (Owned by AOL/TW, who is trying to out fox FNC) Fox (Owned by Rupert Murdoch, member of the birch society)
um which democratic media are you referring to?
I would refer you to the myth of the liberal media

For a glimpse into the potential repercussions of the Diebold e-voting machines used in the last federal election look here.

WARNING: This is really unsettling stuff and may cause you to lose (more) faith in the U.S. election system.

Isn't a blog technically a frequently updated page mostly consisting of links and a bit of personal spin? How could you do that on video?

That said...

There might be something for giving some of these commentators a more vocal voice. The NOW thing in blogging is politics and social commentary. The blog format is great for it, and in fact, it pretty much changes everything. Little obsucure stories that might otherwise be glossed over, if they are important and engaging enough, are suddenly thrust into the mainstream eye. They change everything. Joshua Micah Marshell, Atrios, Brad DeLong, even Glenn Reynolds, it is rather amazing the amount of data and stories that are analyzed and released in a nicely cooked format. Not to mention that the skills of the average blogger are far and away far above those talking heads on TV, who forget what it is like being in the trenches.

Again, that said, do not expect to see video blogs for the longest time. The father of political blogging, as far as I am concerned, Bartcop is just getting into a radio format, let alone video. As well, the closest thing currently to this is the Joey Joe Joe Show. Actually, I remember this old show, "Does Humor Belong In Technology", that may have been a perfect example of an audio blog. A live shoutcast done with IRC live feed back. dhbit.ca it seems. No longer a radio show, more like a small Slash style site. That may have been the first. It was damn good too. Too bad they stopped doing shows.

You know, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of the neo-fascists who've hijacked the conservative, religious, and libertarian spheres of discussion with their violence-filled rhetoric and blatent lies. A quick wander over to Free Republic or Lucianne (or just a read of Ann "Thrax" Coulter's latest remarks about the NYT and Tim McVeigh - yes, I know it was just supposed to get a rise out of the left, but this is what we saw 70 years ago. Violent rhetoric, violent acts. Today we see the rhetoric, and in some cases, McVeigh and the anthrax mailer as examples, or the mob in the Miami ballot riot as another. And still the abuse, the mindless, pro-violent, abuse goes on, never ending, never receiving a word of criticism from the right's fellow travellers, and even the occasional, as you've shown above, "Well, they probably deserved it" attempts at justification in the absense of real evidence to the contrary.

Here's another one. No baby this time, just some old dear with a placard. Were these bikers or blacks in baggy trousers surrounding her, the stories would have filled the media for months. But it's police, cops, people supposed to be looking out for us, becoming the danger. A discredit to their uniforms, but enough of them acting as one to raise serious questions of how far this can be described as some minor misunderstanding, a nervous cop overreacting at the sight of a long haired youth with a bottle.

In either case, no reasonable observer would react in anything like the paroxysms of hyperbole which you are exhibiting here.

I'll just calm down by listening to what those nice Mssrs Limbaugh and Coulter have to say.

Well, there's the in depth, well researched, answer and then there's the racey, slap one's head and say "Of course!" answer to your question, take your pick.