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You might want to follow these tips outlined by electoral-vote:

Find out today where your polling place is by calling your county clerk or checking mypollingplace.com

Alternatively, call 1-866-MYVOTE1 to find your polling place.

Check the hours the polls are open with your city or county clerk.

Print the League of Women Voters' card in English or Spanish and put it in your wallet or purse.

Bring a government-issued picture ID like a driver's license or passport when you vote. Some states require it but if there are problems, you will certainly need it. If you have a cell phone, take it to call for help if need be.

As you enter the polls, note if there is an Election Protection person outside the polling place.

If you are not listed as a registered voter, try to register on the spot. Some states allow that. Otherwise, talk to the Election Protection person if there is one or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE for instructions. If neither of these helps, ask for a provisional ballot, but you will need a picture ID to get one.

According to Democracy Now, voting tricks abound in states like Florida and Ohio, so try to arm yourself (against both sides) if you live in one of these states.

1. If you record TV shows at normal (high) quality, you can't burn more than 1 hour onto the DVD. There's no transcoding!

2. If you listen to a MP3 larger than 10MB, you can't fast-forward or rewind. Useless for Internet radio shows.

3. You can't store MP3s on the hard drive; you have to insert a CD with them burned on it. Again, useless for internet radio.

4. And of course, no network access unless you pay an additional fee for the "home media option".

5. The DVD drive is region coded, and no patched firmware is available: no renting foreign movies.

None of these limitations seem to be for technological reasons, except maybe the lack of transcoding.

So, I bit the bullet and made my own Mythbox. It was a pain in the ass, but faster thanks to KnoppMyth. I still had to recompile the kernel, MythTV, and the PVR-350 driver to get everything nice and stable, but at least everything works!

I had also considered getting a ReplayTV and hacking it to get the features I want to work. However, even though my MythTV box still doesn't do everything I want it to do (e.g., automatically transcode a bunch of shows to the right size to fit on a DVD), there are at least developers trying to get such features working. In the meantime, the basic features work great and are rock solid. It's amazing how convenient it is to set up a recording over the web interface, in case I find out something is on that I'll want to watch. It's also great to be able to download video clips in any format and be able to play them on my TV the same way I can play back recorded TV.

Western Values (e.g., the "Old Boys" network, allowing near monopolies, keeping minorities in their economic place, and a "free media") certainly are the finest human values in the world, and Bush and Co are certainly striving to ensure their dominance.

This system is just another way to train our soldiers to be ready to go into important areas of the world and protect our oil, I mean, interests. While it does show our technical superiority, our moral superiority may be a bit lacking... I'm all for cool electronic toys, but maybe spending money on social projects might be a bit better.

On another note, I really recommend reading "Forever Peace" - it's a brillaint look at how technological superiority isn't necesarily useful.

--LWM

Voter intimidation, how about Voter disenfranchisement ...

Minorities who are ex-felons have to jump through hoops to get their right to vote back. Florida doesn't even automatically re-authorize an ex-felons right to vote. And since minorities make up a large amount of disenfranchised, it really affects the minority vote.

See Democracynow and Voter Disenfranchisement to read about it.

Why is something as simple as voting in 2004 still a problem? Makes me sick that people are excluding votes to win, and getting away with it. The flyer is rather tame compared to the issue.

In terms of voter intimidation tactics, the Repubs are already preparing for this year... (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/opinion/20herbe rt.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A337 98-2004Aug25.html) I respect differing opinions, but I think that turning a blind eye to the controversy of the 2000 election is just willful ignorance. At least admit there was controversy about the vote in 2000! The fact is that there WAS. I am so worried about the vote this year that I could tear my hair out. Wouldn't it be *amazing* and interesting and an incredible show of integrity if Bush were to say "screw these crazy touch screen machines, I want everyone to have a RECEIPT or some kind of printed verification of their vote. I don't want any question about my winning this time!" But you'll never see that happen, he'd rather take it to the Supreme Court and hash it out there.

Actually, we know that the State, Katherine Harris in particular at the behest of Jeb Bush, was deliberately and illegally excluding black voters. The NAACP settled it's lawsuit against Florida, and Harris has signed documents confirming that she knowingly broke the law.

Don't take it from me. Martin Luther King III is still marching 40 years after his father for the right to vote.

The only thing we would gain from John Kerry is a government that's a slave to France

This, of course, is just as trollish as the "Bush is Hitler" trolls...

Neither of us are going to be prevented from expressing our views.

You aren't paying attention and/or your media is being ... 'selective'. Most recently, there were the protesters in NYC who were jailed, and held even after a judge ordered their release. Or the story of reporter Ana Nogueira, who was arrested in Miami while covering a protest. Or even something as common-place and accepted as "Free-Speech Zones"...

One of the primary sources for political information is a radio show called "Democracy Now" on WPFW (pacifica)

And other stations.

The only road CNN is in the middle of is the left had side of a four lane highway. They are the single most libral news station I have ever seen.

Don't get out much, do ya?
check these out

I watch Fox, there people may not be unbiased but atleast they don't have a problem admitting it.

Fair and Balanced. We Report You Decide. No Spin Zone.
No problems with admitting bias there...

Most important: THINK FOR YOURSELF

... not just that. The Aristide story is one of {mis,dis}information being spread by the US govt (basically saying "We didn't do it!"). Mysteriously this did not seem to be picked up much in the US. Aristide says he didn't resign. He phoned people up to tell them he was being kidnapped. It's an interesting insight into (real) high-level policking and power-brokering. Democracy Now suggests that the new regime in Haiti is pretty bad....

fine, saddam used blood agent chemicals and yes, he did use them - how does that make my point less valid?

The Real Domestic TerroristsThis guy was arrested, put in jail for a year, his wife and kids deported, then found innocent and set free.

It's gotten pretty widespread press this week. Democracy Now | Jury Acquits Idaho Webmaster Charged With Terrorism For Hosting Anti-American Websites

Just to note - US hospitals can't turn away any emergencies - no matter what their capacity to pay might be.

you should read this ("Uncharitable Care: How Hospitals Are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured")

And then, in the virtually ignored fourth corner, we have the stuff that isn't totally assraped by big (or not so big, in Real's case) corporations. MP3. Ogg. Freaking gzipped .AU for all I care. AND NO ONE USES ANY OF THIS STUFF.

Some sectons of the "alternative" media have caught on and are using "alternative" formats. Democracy Now! is one of the best examples--they provide RealMedia, MP3, and OGG versions of their show--and the A-infos Radio Project offers its content in MP3.

But it's still hard to avoid RealMedia. Of the sites I frequent, BBC's excellent On This Day site uses it, MIT's Technology and Culture Forum and UCBerkely's webcast site use it, and the ABC (public broadcaster) here in Australia uses it almost exclusively for their online audio/video content. Thank god for Real Alternative.

Perhaps many of the large commercially-dominate media outlets have underreported the story.

But one US based news outlet had an interview with Sibel Edmonds

Mostly, we do have free speech.

However, the loudest voices that you hear are not necessarily the most free.

Oops, I boofed that link. here it is again

Once again, our famous Thug-In-Chief has ignored international law and has, as previous thugs have done, executed a coup d'etat in Haiti.

So much for "free nations don't attack other nations" (one of many Bushisms).

Very truly yours,
K. Trout

Because the US wanted him removed for being too leftist!

Read more here and here.

Aristide did not resign! He was abducted by the US Special Forces.

I think right now at this time and this place the greatest threat to American liberty comes from al-Qaida and their sympathizers

Actually according to a pentagon report the greatest threat is from a changing environment and it's consequences on global societies.

The terrorist threat is arguable greater today then it was 3 years ago. Fighting "terrorist" militarily is like squeezing a pimple it only makes it worse and takes longer to heal. Terrorism is best countered by emphasizing ideas (such as liberty , equality, education) and centering a foriegn policy more on these ideals then self-interest.

I couldn't have said it better myself. If you want real news, try NPR or Democracy Now. The rest are just one giant fsck'n commercial. But seriously, learn to think for your self and interpret information intelligently, regardless of the source.

Of course, the energy expended in retrieving the helium-3 would negate any benefit from fusing it.

Manned space flight is a solution searching desperately for a problem. Please solve it with your own cash. We have better uses for the money here on Earth.

I don't know if you're just regurgitating a pre-formatted polemic there, but you are laboring under the misunderstanding that I'm in favor of manned space flight.

Just to make my position clear: I see this announcement as a boondoggle for the Military-Industrial complex. I'm in favor of non-manned space missions and pure science which obtains information and knowledge. I'm also in favor of spending a hell of a lot more money (obtained by ramping up taxes on anyone making more than $80,000 per annum) on schools, welfare and healthcare.

There's an stream of an interview with Bruce Gagnon and James Van Allen (of Van Allen Belt fame) on DemocracyNOW! which raises some of my concerns.

Thanks in any event for your response above.

Depends who defines "illegal"

-j

A Texan man with ties to white supremacists has pleaded guilty to possessing chemical weapons in one of the most serious cases of domestic terrorism since Oklahoma City. But the media has all but ignored the story.

How can one of Bush's top fundraisers be allowed to run the company producing the computerized voting machines to tally his votes in the next coup de corp?

Check out this article on Democracy Now! for more info.

Democracy Now ran a good story on thursday's edition i believe. They also ran an whole hour segment on the voting machine scandal.

The Two Georges, Orwell and Bush: A Dramatic Reading of George Orwell's Classic Work 1984 Interspersed With Recent News Clips From President Bush and Others

Well almost not at all...

"Global Warming" -Two Words You Never Hear in Wall-to-Wall Coverage of Hurricane Isabel

Democracy Now is a Pacifica Radio program. Counterspin is produced by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting - a left wing media watch group).

Both are carried by many NPR stations around the country. Both are considerably more progressive than NPR itself.

1. Secret ballot. Nobody but the voter must know who he voted for.
2. Integrity of the ballot. Nobody, not even the voter, should be allowed to remove from the polling place an official copy of his vote, to prevent vote sales. Nobody, not even the voter should be allowed to remove from the polling place, a blank ballot, to prevent vote sales by chain voting.
3. Audit trail. The count needs to be verifiable and challengeable.
4. Fair. There should no partial counts available to some parties and not others, no communication between the system running the voting and the polling place while polling is going on. For a reported example of this, see this article, linked to by Garfinkel.

Having said that, there are, of course, problems with the present systems. One new one is the advent of inexpensive digital cameras which offer the possibility of voters' copying their votes to participate in vote-buying schemes against systems such as optically-scanned paper ballots which were previously secure against this. Solutions will have to be found for this. Perhaps it will have to be made illegal to bring a camera into a voting booth.

But the keys to democracy should not be sold cheaply. Some of those who so glibly propose these schemes sound like nothing so much as wannabe Bill Gateses.

Here is another episode where they talk about Electronic Voting. Dan Wallach a professor of computer science at Rice University is the guest. He is the one who wrote a report about Electronic voting

I wish someone would hook this up to a KU satellite and make it public. There's a lot of content that flows across there that's copyright clear. Heck there's even copyright clear stuff on DISH network satellite, a bunch of the stuff on Free Speech TV is available for noncommercial copying/viewing, like Democracy Now! and Indymedia Newsreal.

Very few PBS stations have the guts to carry
Democracy Now, Counter Spin or Free Speech Radio News

Thanks To George W. Bush

Welcome to the United States of Amnesia

Cheers,
W00t

Get Your War On

I listen to "Democracy Now" off the web. They frequently reference the Guardian and Aljazeera. www.democracynow.org Watch out for the sappy-amateur-protest-folk- songs.

Every day by around 2PM Eastern (US), DemocracyNow.Org - a progressive news show - posts their hour-long broadcast in mp3 format and keeps several days of shows. WebActive.com - a venture funded in part by Real.com - has a lot of progressive shows but they're all in Real format. Check out these progressive news sources; you'll be suprised to hear "the other side" of the story and a well balanced news broadcast unlike the goverment warhawk mouthpiece drivel you hear on Fox News and CNN.

And how 'bout an anonymizer account, encryption software, and a *nix based notebook for listening to listening to Democracy Now and staying in touch with friends and family without prying government eyes...

Okay, mod this down as flamebait and Anti-American, but this is my opinion:

Unlike Afghanistan? Yes, 9/11 was a horrible atrocity committed by a bunch of nutjobs who we should go after. However, if you don't think that oil is the primary reason we're meddling in Afghanistan then you've bought the US government propaganda hook, line, and sinker.

US oil companies have been drooling over the prospect of building an oil pipeline through Afghanistan for more than fifteen years and were perfectly happy dealing with the Taliban in an effort to make it happen before 9/11. What we have in Afghanistan now is a puppet government installed by the United States.

I comple0tely and utterly support our troops - the soldiers are doing their duty by going where our government orders them to go and doing what they're ordered to do. They are not to blame. The government of the United States and the US foreign policy are to blame for the antipathy toward the United States. 9/11 was horrible, but it was chickens coming home to roost.

We killed just as many, if not more, innocent civilians in bombing the shit out of Afghanistan. Just listen to Democracy Now and some other NEWS organizations like The Progressive and Mother Jones. CNN has become nothing more than the mouthpiece of corporate America. Have you heard or seen of civilian casualties? When was the last time we had press coverage of a military action like we did during Vietnam?

How many more innocent civilians will the United States kill in vengance for the murders of 9/11? 10,000? 100,000? Millions?

Who will we invade next? Will their prisoners be treated humanely, like the Nazis we tried after WWII? Will the prisoners of the next country we capture be "unlawful combatants" or will they be white and thus qualified for "prisoner of war" status. How many "terrorists" will be captured as the definition is expanded to include anyone who objects to what the US government is doing? Will we too be denied civil liberties without legal representation and kept in prison without trial indefinitely? Will citizens face a military courts martial?

They had hippies in 1949, when Pacifica was founded?

I personally find that Pacifica is in line with the social teachings of the Catholic Church, except, unfortunately, on the issue of abortion. In particular, Pacifica reflects the anti-government anti-corporate anti-globalism attitude shared by many Slashdotters. The slogan for their flagship program Democracy Now! is "the exception to the rulers."

As one of those wacky left wing radio people, I'd suggest checking out two great sources for a different media perspective on the WTO issue:
First is Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, at http://www.democracynow.org
Second is a special series put out by the National Radio Project called World Trade Watch.
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