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They should have held up one or two exemplary examples of blogging done right - good content and timley information (and a lack of words like "dat", "ur", "OMG", "LOL", and "ROFLMAO")

You mean, like, instead of holding up our buddy Howard "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" Dean (who, according to Dave Barry, is most famous for "making a sound like a hog being castrated with a fondue fork"), they could have mentioned, oh, I dunno...

The people who broke Rathergate, maybe? A marketing guy in DC who dug up a forensics document expert or Charles Johnson and his famous reproduction of the faked memos?

How about Glenn Reynolds? Or Moulitsas Zúniga? Who really rallied the troops this election season?

Howard Dean??

What about some of the many Iraqi blogs - written by, you know, people on the ground, as it were? How about Spirit of America's Arabic blogging tool, and the bloggers who took the the challenge to raise money for it?

There's a lot more going on out there than ABC is reporting.

I enjoy some blogs, although I have to admit that the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty bad. Here's a few which I personally find interesting and read regularly. I'm a neuro, space, and robotics geek, so the list is biased as such.

* Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) News: The most thorough spaceflight blog around, focusing on reusable systems.
* NASA Watch: A well-known site with regular critiques of NASA.
* Free Republic: Like slashdot, but for ultra-conservatives. I sometimes like to go there to get a better understanding of what goes through the heads of people who think differently from me.
* Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log: "Quantum fluctuations in space, science, and exploration"
* Democratic Underground: The extreme left's version of Free Republic.
* Instapundit: The slashdot-equivalent of political weblogging, with a somewhat libertarian slant. Known for causing "Instalanches" on innocent web servers, analogous to "Slashdottings."
* Daily Kos: Probably the most influential liberal blog.
* Transterrestrial Musings: a libertarian space analyst who helped me understand why it's possible to be intelligent and support the war in Iraq at the same time. He sometimes posts some fantastic satires.
* theferrett's livejournal: sometimes writes some very insightful and well-composed essays
* spacexploration livejournal community: Space-related miscellany and discussion.
* politicsforum livejournal community: Sometimes has some pretty intelligent political discussion.
* robots.net: Robotics news
* Space Politics: "Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway"
* Rocket Man Blog: Rarely updated, but has very insightful and informed analysis of spaceflight and rocketry.
* Howard Lovy's NanoBot: Nanotechnology news and commentary

Pretty amazing seeing what happens to those in politics who cross Diebold.

Apparently our Governator has taken sides. Pity.

Kerry weighs in at the last moment.

Analyze this and this and this

Bush Hijacked the election and we have to live with the consequence for Four More Years because nobody is going to anything to fight it. What else is there to say...?
The most infamous one so far is Kerry Won. I live in the state of flordia and i know how floridians think. This state is democrat period. The polls on the last week even showed it. And so did the Exit Polling. And please save me the Liberal Whining as the former site is non-partisan, and of course the liberals will show that this election was robbed again because they would be the only ones who have interest to prove it!

Consider the example of the "Kos Dozen." As the referenced article describes, Markos Moulitsas runs the Daily Kos political blog, and is probably the most successful blog fundraiser for democratic candidates, raising (according to his site) about $750K. Of that, $550K went to a list of 15 candidates he endorsed and targeted, the inaccurately named "Kos Dozen."

Moulitsas claimed that all these candidates could win, and bragged about helping some candidates that the Democratic Party bigwigs hadn't supported enough. For example, he raised a lot of money for Ginny Shrader, running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 8th District, and he said:

The DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] was furious, since they originally hoped to maneouver a 'better' candidate into the race, but they have since come around and have become enthusiastic supporters of Ginny's candidacy."

I don't know if there were more deserving candidates and races that Moulitsas could have directed the money to, but I suspect there were. It's great he could raise so much money from small donors (the average donation was about $100), but a lot of it may have been wasted because of poor targeting choices.

Morale of the story: Sometimes the party bigwigs really do know strategy better than the masses, and trying to "strategize by committee" through a blog is not necessarily a good way to help a campaign.

Consider the example of the "Kos Dozen." As the referenced article describes, Markos Moulitsas runs the Daily Kos political blog, and is probably the most successful blog fundraiser for democratic candidates, raising (according to his site) about $750K. Of that, $550K went to a list of 15 candidates he endorsed and targeted, the inaccurately named "Kos Dozen."

Moulitsas claimed that all these candidates could win, and bragged about helping some candidates that the Democratic Party bigwigs hadn't supported enough. For example, he raised a lot of money for Ginny Shrader, running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 8th District, and he said:

The DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] was furious, since they originally hoped to maneouver a 'better' candidate into the race, but they have since come around and have become enthusiastic supporters of Ginny's candidacy."

I don't know if there were more deserving candidates and races that Moulitsas could have directed the money to, but I suspect there were. It's great he could raise so much money from small donors (the average donation was about $100), but a lot of it may have been wasted because of poor targeting choices.

Morale of the story: Sometimes the party bigwigs really do know strategy better than the masses, and trying to "strategize by committee" through a blog is not necessarily a good way to help a campaign.

Franklin County, OH: Gahanna 1-B Precinct
638 TOTAL BALLOTS CAST

US Senator:
Fingerhut (D) - 167 votes
Voinovich (R) - 300 votes

US President:
Kerry (D) - 260 votes
Bush (R) - 4,258 votes

Hmmm...

It's not because of an evoting machine, but they've already found one example where Bush was given 4000 extra votes in Ohio. In one precinct.

Kos http://www.dailykos.com/ points out an article in Harpers http://harpers.org/ElectingToLeave.html on the logistics of becoming a non-US citizen. Not as easy as you might think; although they leave out the most pleasant method of gaining citizenship elsewhere - alien matrimony ;-)

Public records show that unauthorized tampering has already
occurred with these computers -- during an election. In a primary
election in King County, Washington, held during September 2004, there
are 3 hours, from 9:52 p.m. until 1:31 a.m., missing from the record
kept in the "central tabulator audit log". The organization "Black
box voting" ( http://www.blackboxvoting.org ) discovered this after
obtaining the "audit log" through a public records request. "Black
box voting" explains

>> The audit log is a computer-generated automatic record similar to
>> the "black box" in an airplane, that automatically records access
>> to the Diebold GEMS central tabulator (unless, of course, you go
>> into it in the clandestine way we demonstrated on September 22 in
>> Washington DC at the National Press club.)
>>
>> The central tabulator audit log is an FEC-required security
>> feature. The kinds of things it detects are the kinds of things you
>> might see if someone was tampering with the votes: Opening the vote
>> file, previewing and/or printing interim results, altering
>> candidate definitions (a method that can be used to flip votes).

In addition, they ("Black box voting") KNOW there should be some
information for that time frame. They were there, at the scene in
King County, and obtained "summary reports" of the ongoing vote
tabulation that are time-stamped during the 9:52 p.m. to 1:31 a.m.
These "summary reports" are automatically generated and stored in the
audit log, and there is no explanation as to why they are now absent.

You can read more about the King County, Washington situation at
http://www.blackboxvoting.org#breaking . There are images posted of
the corrupted central tabulator audit log
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/auditlog.PDF and the "summary reports"
that are missing http://www.blackboxvoting.org/resultspages.PDF .
(The first doesn't open for me, somebody should email them and let
them know this link seems to be broken ... at least for me).

What was removed from the "central tabulator audit log" besides these
summary reports? Evidence of vote-tampering? Nobody knows.

Less well-documented but potentially more frightening was the apparent
manipulation of computer voting machine results during the Wisconsin
Democratic primary. Martin Bento did a comparison between results
obtained in precincts not using the new computers and those that do,
and discovered striking discrepancies:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/e xplodedview/1389 .html?view=1901 .

Finally, there were some very fishy things going on with the exit poll data. Dick Morrison is certainly an expert at using polls to predict political outcomes, as you will know if you are familiar with his political work for Clinton, etc. . Morris thinks the discrepancies were so inexplicable that there should be an investigation, and has written a New York Post piece titled "EXIT-POLL OUTRAGE" http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/3 1590.htm. Morris tends to work on the Republican side these days -- he assumes it must have been the exit polls that were at fault.

But given the degree of uncertainty surrounding e-voting I think there should be a call for an investigation of possible vote fraud. As the following blogger notes,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/3/04741/7055

>> What is puzzling everyone at the moment is the
>> discrepancy between the exit polls and the
>> votes that are being reported. The way the
>> pundits are framing this issue is: what went
>> wrong with the exit polls?
>>
>

It now appears CNN changed their exit poll numbers when it looked like they didn't match the vote counts. It also seems interesting that FL and OH were the states with the exit poll discrepancies... and they use the Diebold "blackbox" voting machines, the ones where vote totals can be changed without leaving a trace.

It now appears CNN changed their exit poll numbers when it looked like they didn't match the vote counts. It also seems interesting that FL and OH were the states with the exit poll discrepancies... and they use the Diebold "blackbox" voting machines, the ones where vote totals can be changed without leaving a trace.

The exit polls were "updated" during the night to match the election results.

The computer ate my Ohio votes and I am pissed

DailyKOS.com has a lot more info than slate has and had it a lot earlier. Also, I was talking to a DNC member and the internal top secret DNC polls supposedly had Kerry only losing in Virginia by 1%. I guess I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but oh well.

----
WrongPlanet.net

One of the flyers (the Wisconsin one) they talk about...

I believe that Drudge has been DEBUNKED once again on this one.
Drudge Debunked once again!
here's the summary for ya if u can't follow the link:
The 'votes' that were 'casted' on the machines before polls opened were the ticker (like on an old car's mileage) to count the number of total votes that each machine had processed.
no big deal ... nothing to see here folks...

Slashdot is slashdotted, so I can't tell if this was posted correctly before:

Facts you should know before you vote:

If you truly love your country, you will not just enjoy the advantages, you will be there for your country when there are problems.

100 Facts and 1 Opinion -- The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration

See The CIA trained Osama bin Laden and other Arabs in the techniques of terrorism.

Government data compares Democrat and Republican economics.

Most media exists to make money. Advertisers are understandably careful not to alienate anyone. It is not possible to develop an accurate opinion of government activities only by listening to the carefully crafted phrases from media employees who would lose their jobs if they seemed to indicate a preference for one policy over another. Books are the major media that are not ad-supported. Here are reviews of 3 movies and 35 books that discuss the corruption of the Bush administration: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.

Bush's education improvements were at least partly fraud.

I recommend a new book, The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. Don't expect any author to be perfect. However, this book is an excellent overview of the Bush family, and the best book by this author. Here is a quote which shows just one more fact about the chronic lying of George Herbert Walker Bush and his son George W. Bush: "The official family tree provided by the Bush archivists does not include the two mentally retarded daughters of John M. Walker, and lists only two of James Smith Bush's wives, not all four of them; one of Ray Walker's two wives is omitted, and George Herbert Walker III is listed with only two, instead of three, wives."

Before, Saddam was killing. Now, the U.S. government is killing and destabilizing, and you pay. Improvement?

15 of the nineteen 9/11 attackers were Saudis. Many don't like the U.S. Gov. influence on their country.

Did you see the network footage of George W. Bush holding hands with a Saudi man the Bush family knows as "Bandar Bush"? Since it was Saudis who attacked on 9/11, why did Bush invade Iraq? Was it a smokescreen to get attention away from the Saudis?

Bush borrows money to kill Iraqis. 140 billion borrowed. With interest, you pay 200 billion. When Saudis attack, invade Iraq?

Is Bush drinking NOW?

George W. Bush's brother was shown in a lawsuit deposition on 20/20 talking about his prostitutes and using government influence to make money. Family values? Neil Bush is different from other relatives of presidents like Billy Carter; he is heavily involved with government corruption and he does his corruption with the help of his family.

The U.S. government has fought 24 wars since World War II. The system of violence works by creating fear so rich people can profit.

I use Free Republic for live updates from the right, and Daily Kos for live updates from the left. Both sites are highly biased, and admit as such. (I like my bias out in the open where I can see it.)

Both sites are highly active today with live or near-live reports coming in from voters and observers. Signal-to-noise ratio is low (as you might expect), but half the fun is reading through the "rah rah, our guy's winning" noise to find the nuggets of information that may (or may not) lead to a coherent picture of what's going on out there.

Here you go:

Flyer distributed in African American neighborhoods in Milwaukee

Repubs challenge 37,180 registrations in Milwaukee (this is a new challenge, on top of the 5600 cases you cited)

Repub attempt to disenfranchise over 20,000 Ohioans thrown out of court (mentioned as similar strategy to Wisconsin item)

photo of fraudulent letter sent to Ohio democrats

West Virginia fraudulent phone calls

College republicans distribute false voting flyers at UW Madison

Voters get phone call claiming Kerry supports gay marriage (before you get on me about Schwarzkopf, that story's already been discredited. Apparently "someone" took a legitimate endorsement message from General McPeak, and spliced it to sound like Schwarzkopf made the endorsement)

Scan of flyer distributed in Jefferson Co., Alabama

Here's a bonus fraudulent letter sent to African American voters in South Carolina

God bless America, eh buddy?

Attention:
Jefferson
County!!!

See You At The Poles
November 4, 2004.

To Find your local polling
place, call Jefferson
County Voter's
Registration
Commission.

Go listen to the OBL last tape, it is nothing but items copied from Micheal Moore film and former Kerry speeches. Including items that moore made up.*
Press relation wise it is great for OBL, if Bush is defeated OBL will claim that he had a major effect on the Americans and scared them into removing him. He goes from a person living in caves and being hunted by a coalation of more countries then thoses involved in WW2, to someone who told the US citizen vote for Bush and I will kill you, and they did as he said.
If Bush is reelected it is ignored, after all he was going against a huge force, business as usual. *Not a major thing it happens all the time, however what is really sad is that the democrates are using the speech as a positive thing and quoting it as a reason to vote for Kerry. It is really pitiful when a person who was responsible for the deaths of 3000 Americans is considered a hero for what he said.

dailykos has the details. The GOP doesnt like to lose.

ourvote.com has a site up and a hotline ready. See also: my earlier post on fraud and corruption in American politics.

I care who wins, but I care more about winning legally and properly. I care about every vote being counted. I wish more of my fellow countrymen felt the same way.

Now I can't find a link, but I'd swear I read an article this morning saying that Gallup (or some other big poller) just did an SMS survey and found that Kerry was way ahead with that group...

Here is a link to a Daily Kos story from today. The polling was done by Zogby in partnership with Rock the Vote and Motorola. Here's Zogby's article. The Rock the Vote Mobile site is not responding for me at the moment.

is likely to give you many seemingly uncanny correlations between multiple events. The outcome of Washington Redskins home games prior to the election has predicted all the presidential elections since 1936. The sale of Halloween maks of the presidential candidates have predicted the elections since 1980. Does this bear any significance to this election? No. However, on the surface, this new prediction seems interesting. A person's word usage is a reflection of his character, education, and background. And there's been plenty of analysis of the word used by Bush and Kerry in this year's debates.

Yeah, well whatever. The thing that bugs me most about presidential candidates is that they always say "when I am president" and not "if I am elected president", even the ones who know they have no chance of winning (like Kucinich). I know their speech coaches or whoever tell them it makes them sound more assertive and confident and blah blah blah, but shut up already. NBC did this too, with their "MUST SEE THURSDAY" crap. It always sounded like a threat to me. Oh. Also, have they done an analysis of whether the person who repeats the same damn phrases over and over again the most is more likely to win? Because that seems to be the strategy of both camps.

I'm amused that this got an FPP, but Eminem's Mosh didn't. MTV wasn't going to play it, but counterterrorists flooded the request page and forced them to play it.

Same site also has a pretty good analysis of the video.

If you haven't seen the video, then please watch it. Regardless of what you think of Eminem (in fact, the video probably assumes you know who he is and have already formed your preconceptions), the climax is pretty damn amazing.

I'm amused that this got an FPP, but Eminem's Mosh didn't. MTV wasn't going to play it, but counterterrorists flooded the request page and forced them to play it.

Same site also has a pretty good analysis of the video.

If you haven't seen the video, then please watch it. Regardless of what you think of Eminem (in fact, the video probably assumes you know who he is and have already formed your preconceptions), the climax is pretty damn amazing.

Did you watch the program? I didn't, but am curious how it was presented.

No, I didn't have the opportunity. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find it online. From what I understand, it was pretty fair. Even the left-wing dailykos.com's summary seems to indicate that it was balanced, which is somewhat surprising, given their venomous attitude toward Republicans and their apparent love for hyping the "right-wing conspiracy theory du jour".

Not sure I agree that atrocities were committed to Sinclair. They really went out on a limb to broadcast this news program, and it seemed that the "Under Fire" program was the initial concern, the final program just a last minute CYA. It is unusual for them to produce a news program, and really opened the door for the critism they received. And it was a no win situation. If they presented either candidate in a negative light, that candidate's supporters would cry foul. The fact that they have more history as a partisan supporter than as news organization caused the outrage and the allegations.

Oh, I wasn't trying to say that, literally, atrocities were committed against Sinclair. It's not like they were publicly flogged or anything like that.

I do think that they were prematurely attacked and the media's coverage of it was misleading. Sinclair was fairly quick to respond, saying that the program's content was still being decided and any characterization of the program was premature. I knew that the program would probably be unpolished, given that they hadn't finished it until the last minute. At the very most, I could understand it if a group of people publicly threatened to boycott them if the program was too biased. Instead, people immediately took action against Sinclair as soon as the story broke, and Sinclair received, and is still receiving, much more than just criticism. Call me crazy, but I believe that someone has to do something wrong before they're punished for it.

I'm not sure if Sinclair actually planned to air an hour-long anti-Kerry smear program. That's entirely possible. But I think the media's coverage and public outcry was enough to dissuade them from that alleged plan. Instead, things got out of hand. Certain people falsely claimed that they knew that Sinclair was going to broadcast "Stolen Honor", and others claimed that it was officially announced. People protested, Sinclair was boycotted, and their execs were subjected to personal attacks. These aren't "atrocities", but they certainly show that people can easily be influenced to do some awful things.

There's a hilarious Mad Magazine spoof of the Bush campaign and how it might treat Jesus Christ. http://www.dailykos.com/images/user/3/jesusbush.jp g However, it does a good job of raising a serious issue, though: Bush talks like a Christian, but he doesn't act according to Christian values. Humility? Charity? Turning the other cheek? Compassion? Love of your fellow man? Hardly.

Got news for you - teenagers were having sex as far back as history goes. They don't get the idea from TV.

Another funny fact is that abortions decreased under Clinton, but increase under Bush. Interesting factoid, that.

Oh, as for moral decay, just when did you think that there was a moral time? I'm curious.

BOTH parties you say? Nonsense. Show me anything even close to what the Republicans are currently doing.

The facts are (just a brief snippet really)

SPROUL & ASSOCIATES is directly financed by the RNC. Nathan Sproul is reported as the director of the Arizona Christian Coalitition.

The Charlston Gazette reported on 8/20 Sproul & Associates in West Virginia started a voter registration campaign where ONLY republicans were registered -- not Democrats -- apparently in violation of the West Virginia law. (The article is reported here).

There have been reports posted on the internet from Pennsylvania (on September 17) and Maryland (on September 16) of the the same organization -- Sproul & Associates -- pretending to be workers from the non-partisan America Votes, and registering ONLY Republicans. To obtain locations to set up shop, Sproul and Associates apparently lied to puiblic librarians about being non-partisan. (The internet postings, that took place on a librarian network, are reported here.

On September 22, Sproul and Associates did the same thing in Oregon. This is a plain violation of Oregon law, according to Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury in an interview with Northwest Cable News. See here. It also appears that another Republican group engaged in "bait and switch registration", at least according to the Daily Vanguard.

A few days ago, CBS reported that an organization in Nevada called Voters Outreach America was THROWING OUT registration forms filled out by people trying to register to vote as Democrats. The American Prospect has reported that Voters Outreach America is under contract with Sproul & Associates.

And then, of course, there is the widely-reported story from South Dakota, where the nephew of Thune, the Republican challenger to Tom Daschle, has been caught fraudulently obtaining absentee ballots for Republicans. A criminal investigation is pending. Top Republicans have been forced to resign.

What it appears here is that there are reliable reports of GOP operatives in at least SIX states engaging in sytematic and repeated attempts at voter fraud. From only registering republicans, to falsifying absentee ballot requests, to destroying democratic voter applications, this appears to be a coordinated effort at all levels to swing the election illegally to the Republicans. In fact, things are so bad that former SD goveror Janklow has issued a public statement saying that the national GOP is encouraging voter fraud.

So, sorry, it's not both parties. It's the Republicans. Show me anything comparable done by Democrats, and I'll eat my own shit and vote shit, err... Bush.

BOTH parties you say? Nonsense. Show me anything even close to what the Republicans are currently doing.

The facts are (just a brief snippet really)

SPROUL & ASSOCIATES is directly financed by the RNC. Nathan Sproul is reported as the director of the Arizona Christian Coalitition.

The Charlston Gazette reported on 8/20 Sproul & Associates in West Virginia started a voter registration campaign where ONLY republicans were registered -- not Democrats -- apparently in violation of the West Virginia law. (The article is reported here).

There have been reports posted on the internet from Pennsylvania (on September 17) and Maryland (on September 16) of the the same organization -- Sproul & Associates -- pretending to be workers from the non-partisan America Votes, and registering ONLY Republicans. To obtain locations to set up shop, Sproul and Associates apparently lied to puiblic librarians about being non-partisan. (The internet postings, that took place on a librarian network, are reported here.

On September 22, Sproul and Associates did the same thing in Oregon. This is a plain violation of Oregon law, according to Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury in an interview with Northwest Cable News. See here. It also appears that another Republican group engaged in "bait and switch registration", at least according to the Daily Vanguard.

A few days ago, CBS reported that an organization in Nevada called Voters Outreach America was THROWING OUT registration forms filled out by people trying to register to vote as Democrats. The American Prospect has reported that Voters Outreach America is under contract with Sproul & Associates.

And then, of course, there is the widely-reported story from South Dakota, where the nephew of Thune, the Republican challenger to Tom Daschle, has been caught fraudulently obtaining absentee ballots for Republicans. A criminal investigation is pending. Top Republicans have been forced to resign.

What it appears here is that there are reliable reports of GOP operatives in at least SIX states engaging in sytematic and repeated attempts at voter fraud. From only registering republicans, to falsifying absentee ballot requests, to destroying democratic voter applications, this appears to be a coordinated effort at all levels to swing the election illegally to the Republicans. In fact, things are so bad that former SD goveror Janklow has issued a public statement saying that the national GOP is encouraging voter fraud.

So, sorry, it's not both parties. It's the Republicans. Show me anything comparable done by Democrats, and I'll eat my own shit and vote shit, err... Bush.

BOTH parties you say? Nonsense. Show me anything even close to what the Republicans are currently doing.

The facts are (just a brief snippet really)

SPROUL & ASSOCIATES is directly financed by the RNC. Nathan Sproul is reported as the director of the Arizona Christian Coalitition.

The Charlston Gazette reported on 8/20 Sproul & Associates in West Virginia started a voter registration campaign where ONLY republicans were registered -- not Democrats -- apparently in violation of the West Virginia law. (The article is reported here).

There have been reports posted on the internet from Pennsylvania (on September 17) and Maryland (on September 16) of the the same organization -- Sproul & Associates -- pretending to be workers from the non-partisan America Votes, and registering ONLY Republicans. To obtain locations to set up shop, Sproul and Associates apparently lied to puiblic librarians about being non-partisan. (The internet postings, that took place on a librarian network, are reported here.

On September 22, Sproul and Associates did the same thing in Oregon. This is a plain violation of Oregon law, according to Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury in an interview with Northwest Cable News. See here. It also appears that another Republican group engaged in "bait and switch registration", at least according to the Daily Vanguard.

A few days ago, CBS reported that an organization in Nevada called Voters Outreach America was THROWING OUT registration forms filled out by people trying to register to vote as Democrats. The American Prospect has reported that Voters Outreach America is under contract with Sproul & Associates.

And then, of course, there is the widely-reported story from South Dakota, where the nephew of Thune, the Republican challenger to Tom Daschle, has been caught fraudulently obtaining absentee ballots for Republicans. A criminal investigation is pending. Top Republicans have been forced to resign.

What it appears here is that there are reliable reports of GOP operatives in at least SIX states engaging in sytematic and repeated attempts at voter fraud. From only registering republicans, to falsifying absentee ballot requests, to destroying democratic voter applications, this appears to be a coordinated effort at all levels to swing the election illegally to the Republicans. In fact, things are so bad that former SD goveror Janklow has issued a public statement saying that the national GOP is encouraging voter fraud.

So, sorry, it's not both parties. It's the Republicans. Show me anything comparable done by Democrats, and I'll eat my own shit and vote shit, err... Bush.

Dear Chairman Gillespie,

The letter I received from you yesterday was quite a surprise. It struck us as just the sort of "malicious political deception" that is likely to increase voter cynicism and decrease the youth vote. In fact, it is a textbook case of attempted censorship, very much in line with those that triggered our organization's founding some fifteen years ago.

I am stunned that you would say that the issue of the military draft is an "urban myth"that has been "thoroughly debunked by no less than the President of the United States."

I have some news for you. Just because President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld, and for that matter Senator Kerry, say that there is not going to be a draft does not make it so. Just because Congress holds a transparently phony vote against the draft does not mean there isn't going to be one. Anyone who thinks that the youth of America are going to take a politician's word on this topic is living on another planet.

By your logic, there should be no debate about anything that you disagree with. There's a place for that kind of sentiment (and your threats), but its not here in our country.

There are questions that the politicians are running away from. How long can we keep 138,000 U.S. troops or more on the ground in Iraq? What if full-scale civil war erupts there, as the CIA has warned is a realistic possibility? Would the next President be faced with a choice of pulling out of Iraq rather than institute a draft? Would women be drafted? What exactly would the draft-age be?

According to the Pentagon's own internal assessment, there are "inadequate total numbers" of troops to meet U.S. security interests. The current issue of Time magazine reports that, "General John Keane, who retired last year as the Army's No. 2 officer, says the continued success of the all-volunteer military is not guaranteed" Keane has told Congress that adding more than 50,000 troops to the Army would require thinking about a return to the draft."

But you want young people to believe that the draft is just an "urban myth." I was expecting that you were going to present some facts to back up your assertion. But, instead, you have demanded that we stop talking about it.

In other Nevada Republican democracide news (section "2.0"), the former director of the Nevada Republican Party tried to throw out 17,000 Democratic voter registrations in Clark County. He admitted that he is "looking to take Democrats off the voter rolls". The "1.0" section boils down the suit that will test the evidence and eyewitness testimony to Sproul's cruder dirty work - so similar to reports of his work in Oregon. Both operations are directly financed by the Republican Party.

... and tell them you're not going to be buying their products as long as they support Sinclair. Hurt Sinclair where it really stings - in the wallet.

List of Advertisers

Furthermore, just in case you don't think your phone call will do anything, see a little morale-booster from Kos.

I can't find my previous post, to the former story.

I said that there are two answers: 1) Find the ugliest backpack you can, so that you won't be the target of thieves, or 2) to distract the thieves, everywhere you go, take a supermodel.

Targus bags shout, "I have a laptop, probably an expensive one."

--
Is Bush drinking NOW?

Drudge is a partisan hack who shouldn't be trusted to report on anything related to Kerry. Besides, the video is not clear at all.

This is just desperate carping by those who are terrified the President will be outed as a cheat for his obvious use of an electronic earpiece system.

Link through and you'll find the incriminating photo as well as other instances of the Pres caught red handed with an earpiece -- see the CNN d-day footage.

Prop 62 (pdf) in California would do the same thing. All of the major political parties in California are against it--the Dems, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, etc. The main supporters seem to be business groups and John McCain.

I brought this up in a diary about this over at Daily Kos a couple weeks ago, and there were some pretty good arguments against the proposition. Some worry that it can lead to extremist candidates (because in a crowded race, fringe candidates that can each get 10% of the vote would end up in the final two).

It seems like a better solution would be some sort of approval voting or instant runoff voting.

Quotes from various places in the article:

"The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda."

"He let us down."

"He merely told us to shop, spend, and pretend nothing was wrong."

"Again, he let us down."

"Job training has been cut every year that Bush has resided at the White House."

People in Crawford are in a position to know George W. Bush a little better than most citizens. It seems that the newspaper is merely saying openly what a lot of people in that town think.

Also, Bush's alcoholism is a matter of importance. For example, look at this: Is Bush drinking NOW?. For a more in-depth analysis, see this: The psychological effects of alcoholism provide a framework for understanding the Bush administration. Remember, Bush quit the Air National Guard the same month the ANG instituted drug testing. Did he fall off the wagon again?

--
Bush: "When Saudis attack, invade Iraq."

Bush's alcoholism is a matter of the most extreme importance. For example, look at this: Is Bush drinking NOW?. For a more in-depth analysis, see this: The psychological effects of alcoholism provide a framework for understanding the Bush administration. Remember, Bush quit the Air National Guard the same month the ANG instituted drug testing.

You said, "If Col. Killian routinely had his secretary type documents of this type (and she said that he did), then why is it plausible that they were sent off to be typeset, when she herself stated that they reflected things she herself had typed."

If you were in the USAF at the time, it is plausible. Remember, these are people who have agreed to kill anyone, anytime, simply on the order of their government. Also, people in leadership positions were less educated then. And, the alcoholics were in the majority. They didn't want anyone opposing them, since their job depended on no one fully realizing the truth. The official rules were that they would be fired if discovered. Many of them had very little employability outside the Guard or regular Air Force. Being discovered was equivalent to losing job, family, and being on the street.

For that reason, you didn't want anyone to see memos that you wrote that opposed this behavior. Yet you needed the memos in case there was a big investigation. It was very capricious.

It's plausible that Lt. Colonel Killian was especially concerned on a weekend, or during a time when his secretary was on vacation, and took his handwritten notes to a typesetter in Houston, and asked that they be typed. Someone typeset them instead. As I said, that happened to me. Then, when the secretary returned, he handed his notes to her to type and translate into the strict military language of the time.

There was a lot of insistence on petty things, and not much attention was given to important things. For example, the model of aircraft after the one that Bush flew, the F-106 Delta Dagger (he flew the Delta Dart), had a VERY, VERY high failure rate. Some of the failures were due to parasitic oscillations in amplifiers with faulty solder joints. Everyone pretended that the F-106 was operational. However, if you used a few wrong words in a memo, someone would make a hassle over it.

I'm not the only person who thinks the documents look real. For example, see I'm an Expert, and I Say They're Not Forged. When you struggled with the old typesetting machines as much as I did, it is easy to find it laughable that someone would know enough to try to impress you by copying all the quirks.

--
Bush: "When Saudis attack, invade Iraq."

Bush's alcoholism is a matter of the most extreme importance. For example, look at this: Is Bush drinking NOW?. For a more in-depth analysis, see this: The psychological effects of alcoholism provide a framework for understanding the Bush administration. Remember, Bush quit the Air National Guard the same month the ANG instituted drug testing.

You said, "If Col. Killian routinely had his secretary type documents of this type (and she said that he did), then why is it plausible that they were sent off to be typeset, when she herself stated that they reflected things she herself had typed."

If you were in the USAF at the time, it is plausible. Remember, these are people who have agreed to kill anyone, anytime, simply on the order of their government. Also, people in leadership positions were less educated then. And, the alcoholics were in the majority. They didn't want anyone opposing them, since their job depended on no one fully realizing the truth. The official rules were that they would be fired if discovered. Many of them had very little employability outside the Guard or regular Air Force. Being discovered was equivalent to losing job, family, and being on the street.

For that reason, you didn't want anyone to see memos that you wrote that opposed this behavior. Yet you needed the memos in case there was a big investigation. It was very capricious.

It's plausible that Lt. Colonel Killian was especially concerned on a weekend, or during a time when his secretary was on vacation, and took his handwritten notes to a typesetter in Houston, and asked that they be typed. Someone typeset them instead. As I said, that happened to me. Then, when the secretary returned, he handed his notes to her to type and translate into the strict military language of the time.

There was a lot of insistence on petty things, and not much attention was given to important things. For example, the model of aircraft after the one that Bush flew, the F-106 Delta Dagger (he flew the Delta Dart), had a VERY, VERY high failure rate. Some of the failures were due to parasitic oscillations in amplifiers with faulty solder joints. Everyone pretended that the F-106 was operational. However, if you used a few wrong words in a memo, someone would make a hassle over it.

I'm not the only person who thinks the documents look real. For example, see I'm an Expert, and I Say They're Not Forged. When you struggled with the old typesetting machines as much as I did, it is easy to find it laughable that someone would know enough to try to impress you by copying all the quirks.

--
Bush: "When Saudis attack, invade Iraq."

Is Bush drinking NOW?

Except that corporate entitles are also legally considered to be "individuals", so are you saying any politician who takes "political contribution" should be executed?

No reason why that rule couldn't be passed by all states.

I would also like to see a limit on contributions from outside the politician's district. Say a limit of $3000 for residents and $1000 for non-residents. And if corporate contributions are allowed, then each corporation has to choose one and only one district to be its "home".

sPh

Look at this.

If you read through the comments, you'll see info detailing that it has been fixed.

And no, this isn't the same as the 'butterfly ballot' or 'hanging chad' problems. Those were due to the stupidity of the user and a general inability to read and follow fairly simple directions. This is a typographical error.

Still, I bet people will manage to screw up the connecting of an arrow.

You can see the whole ballot at The Daily Kos.

here's one view of what his administration could have been doing a month earlier.