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Russia also has problems with corruption, widespread prostitution, and (surprise surprise) an exploding rate of HIV infection. It's like Thailand all over again.

That would be USAir not Delta.
US Airways, unions spar over 'meltdown'

What we are likely seeing is increasing globalization causing a long overdue correction in the equity of global wealth distribution. Developing nations grew by an unprecedented 6.1 percent real GNP in 2004. Globalization is having an vital beneficial impact on the bottom part of the world population. For those of us who have been used to rare luxuries like indoor plumbing and vaguely reliable electric power, it's going to suck.

Of course, it would be nice if it impacted the richest of the rich in the US as noticably as "Middle Class Americans", but I'm not holding my breath.

Sorry, Chachi, the preloaded votes were for Kerry. Widely reported in the news. Your other 'facts' are wishful germs of urban legends, as well.

Odd that all these 'wishfull germs' were reported by mainstream media and have not been dispuited by aanyone. For example:

In nine counties, electronic vote machines count Democrat votes as Libertarian.

This relates to my earlier mention of a vote machine glitch tipping a local election.

As for those reports of extra votes, if this site can be believed, it might only be the tip of the iceburg.

As for those pre-loaded votes being for Kerry instead of Bush, I could not find a news report that backs up your assertion, so I would welcome a reference if you have one. I will gladly admit I'm wrong on that detail if you do. Voter fraud should be a bi-partisan concern... we need to shine a spotlight on it regardless of which side is doing it.

And my original point is still valid. The reports coming out of Volusia county are the most damning evidence of voter fraud to come to light so far. This event was caught on video tape and witnessed by the police... so it is difficult to discount. It is certainly too early to shout that the election was definitely stolen, but this certainly raises serious concerns and undermines the confidence in the election for many. If the election was not stolen, then there is nothing to fear from an audit; it will simply restore confidence in the election process. How can that be bad thing?

Cheers,

From the Indianapolis Star website, Glitch causes Franklin Co. recount

The Chinese government has stated that it wants Kerry to win.
That only makes sense. Bush has been escalating our nuclear program and militarizing space, which China veiws as a threat.
Not that we should vote based on China's interests, but an explanation is needed.

The Australian government has stated that it wants Bush to win.
Right, because they've been riding his gravy train.

The Russian government has stated that it was Bush to win.
Because Putin and Bush are kindred spirits. Putin is a closet authoratarian. Remember, he came from the ranks of a certain infamous secret police.

Osama Bin Laden has stated that it (yes, "it") wants Kerry to win.
No he hasn't. OBL has stated he doesn't care. Both have such similar mideast policy, it's easy to see why.

Bush also has Iran's endorsement

Maybe, the time has come for a real change in power.
Yes, it has. But why endorse whackjobs like O'Reilly and Bruce? At least get some real conservatives who aren't blinded by this neocon BS. Maybe Buchanan? Or why not just vote for Peroutka? I don't really understand why you would suggest those two - Bush is already working to complete their vision of eradicating the Islamic world.

To prevent any unsightly campaign contributions from Iran, of course!

Iran has endorsed Bush for President.

" It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.

"We have not seen any good coming from the Democrats, so we won't be happy if the Democrats win," he said.

Iran did not endorse Bush. Iran stated that they don't care who wins. Your story, like most other ones, were based on the original AP story which left out the most important quote of the whole interview to push the idea that Iran endorsed Bush. The AFP story includes the quote.

TEHRAN, Oct 19 (AFP) - It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.

"It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.

Basically the Iranians were stating that while the republicans were more likely to push for military action/pressure against Iran, Democrats also have a history of being against Iran, so it doesn't matter to them who wins. It's a lose-lose situation.

They are the third party with more people in office (local, state, and federal) than the rest of the third parties combined. They are doing quite well in places like Indianna where originally both Republicans and Democrats for Governor were saying they didn't want the Libertarian candidate to be in a debate with them. Now after some press releases and some big news stories, both the Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for Libertarian Kenn Gividen not being included in the first place and it looks like he will be allowed to debate (definately a big step being able to have Libertarian candidates for governor be able to participate in a debate). http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/185799-6346-092 .html

The Federal Government has been usurping more and more power over the past 100 years...The Court's 1942 decision in Wickard vs. Filburn gave Congress the power to regulate anything...

You'll be pleased to know that this exact point is going before the court again this year. The Supreme Court will consider whether Congress can ban medical marijuana in California even if it never leaves the state.

The WWII wheat-quotas-are-OK case (Wickard v Filburn, 1942) is looking pretty weak after the can't-prohibit-guns-near-schools case (US v Lopez, 1995). I can hardly imagine that the Court will force a broad role-back of Congressional authority, but we'll know in a few months or so.

The $6 million cost -- about $1 per Hoosier -- is being footed by SimDesk Technologies, which also has brought the technology to users in Houston and Chicago. The Houston-based firm has several Indiana investors, Davis said, and is partnering with Hewlett-Packard NonStop servers to provide the service. The program will be offered free for two years, Davis said. After that, the state will decide whether to continue it. Kyle Lutes, associate professor of computer science at Purdue University, said he hadn't heard of SimDesk but expressed skepticism at the program. It seems like a good deal, he said, but the company may be using the "crack dealer method of marketing -- give it to 'em free until they're addicted." Plus, he said, many of its features already are available for free online.

But they haven't quit yet - they're playing in my town tonight...

Yep, they will only stick a few flouresent light tubes up your ass, make get naked in a pyramid, masturbate in front of people, attack you with dogs, put a sack over your head and threaten to electrocute you.

Now why on earth would they do that? The majority of soldiers, police officers and FBI agents are decent people.

The reprobates who did that in Iraq are being convicted and going to jail.

No, Bush isn't doing anything about AIDS.

Last year, he tripled the budget for foriegn aid earmarked to fighting AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean to $15 Billion over 3 years. There are lots of things to criticize Bush about, but this may be the one thing he's done right.

Indiana has tech. We have some excellent schools for teaching tech. As soon as a resident gets their degree, almost all immediately jump ship to another state for a job. What Indiana doesn't have is tech jobs. Year old article here

"but it means I would be extremely surprised to hear on the news that 2 Norwegian kids machinegunned their classmates in the school."

World-wide, there are many deadly school murders by students, including in low-crime countries such as Japan.

How about when an eight year old shoots at a school in Germany? Or an expelled student killing 18 in a school in Germany?

It happens everywhere, but that doesn't mean it doesn't tend to happen more often in countries where it's easier for kids to get their hands on deadly weapons.

At least he wasn't arrested for rapping an intern... Like some local DJs...

In case anybody is tempted to RTFA, here's a synopsis.

1) Guy finds out he can get paid to play games, can't believe his luck.

2) Guy discovers that he is actually expected to play all the time, and very, very well, in order to keep getting paid.

3) Guy stresses out under the pressure and ponders his sorry fate.

I say, quit your crying, kid! You should come over to the US of A, and see how talented youth are really exploited...

The Gore/Bush Florida hanging chad fiasco was another problem with determining voter intent. Agreed, in Florida where the old people go to die, a technology based system might not work. Can you imagine, all the retirees standing there waiting for cash to come out of the voting machines?

Its dangerous and irresponsible to force a web based system on people, but I think it would vastly improve voter turnout among... say college students, military personnel, and mobile professionals that have trouble finding time to vote. Either because they're attending a school that is far removed from their registered county, traveling on business, or stationed out of the country. Of course they can vote absentee ballot, but consider races are declared and candidates concede on election night, those absentee ballots aren't counted for days/weeks after. Those votes, in some sense, don't count.

I think Oregon might have the plan for the future. Offering a more flexible and convenient way of voting.... I wanna say in 2002 when this was implemented they shattered records for voter turn out.

I'm not one to drop links into stuff, please take a look at the Oregon link, as the act details it's system for audit, correction and remediation that I think you might find interesting in relation to this discussion.

*sigh* I'll attempt to keep this short--verbosity merely clouds the discussion in needless rebuttal.

Point the first:

If you're going to ban religion, you might as well ban political parties and socio-economic theorists from government as well.

This is a strawman; no one has suggested banning religion.

There was an implied "in government" corollary to that. To restate: if you're going to unilaterally ban religion from influencing government on the basis that it is unproven, you might as well ban political parties or socio-economic theories, as well.

None of these are harmful to government, simply because any truly dangerous idea would very unlikely make it through the democratic system--and, quite frankly, the risk of a dangerous idea being democratically instituted is less dangerous that the certain dangers of limiting free discourse in government or relying on a non-democratic form of government.

Point the second:

Please present evidence of atheism "working against religion". I have never seen such a thing.

Quite simply, you haven't looked. The most recent example is Michael Newdow's Supreme Court case. He is acting, as an atheist, to alter what he sees as a religious expression, on the basis that it is a religious expression.

Another one is related to a person you mentioned. Larry Darby, "former Alabama state director of American Atheists, who led the protest to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building in Montgomery." (quote from linked article.)

A third example is the case of Michael and William Randall, who were plaintiffs in one of the landmark cases that exempted the Boy Scouts of America from anti-discrimination laws based on the BSA being a private party. (The Randalls were atheists who refused to swear the BSA's religious oath.) [This example is a good example, btw, of atheism being treated already as a religion by the government.]

Atheism, either as lack of faith or faith in the nonexistance of god, is only organized to the extent that it is organized to counter religion's influence in our culture.

Point the third:

You persist in using the word "agnostic" where you should be using "atheistic"

No, I don't. The goverment should not believe in any god, and neither should it have belief nor actual absence of belief in any deity or religion. Goverment, and all other public bodies, should be agnostic--unless religion is important to them, as it undoubtedly is to some, they should simply be of the opinion that they, as public bodies, cannot answer any religious question at all.

I have four small rebuttals, and then I'll make my last point. (Feel free to reply to these, but I will not counter-reply unless specifically invited.)

Rebuttal 1:

Christianity, a belief for which there is no evidence.

There IS evidence for Christianity. Just not enough to be scientifically conclusive. (Were we to hold jury trials to decide the veraicty of religions, much of the evidence for religion would be quite admissable.)

Rebuttal 2:

No governmental claims are based on atheism; the concept is preposterous.

The concept is hardly preposterous. I can concieve of a variety of claims that could be put forth to governemnt wherein a major factor was the falsehood of religion. One example would be an objection to euthanasia, based on the belief that there is nothing after death. Another would be the somewhat repugnant petition of some social clubs for religious tax-exemptions based on religion's supposed falsehood. (Many religions are, essentially, charities, and atheists can simply not provide them with any funds but donate their dollars elsewhere, or keep them for themselves.)

Rebuttal 3:

You'd have trouble finding a scientist who claimed the

OK, I had to go check this out. I found an article at the Indianapolis Star about this case. It seems that Mr. Berry was selling mixed CDs, and it was the police who raided his place, and, one has to presume, they did indeed have a warrant to do so. So, the guy was selling CDs that he or others had burned, containing songs that other people had written and performed. Sounds pretty much like stealing to me.

Please explain how the federal deficit has anything to do with state budgets. (Hint: It doesn't, really)

We know what the predominance of the terrorists look like and what they will likely look like should another attack occur. Therefore, only an idiot (Democrat? Liberal?) would hold PC over security...and they do...daily.

I seem to remember a shocking act of terrorism in the United States that killed 168 people, committed by someone I doubt would fit into your description of what the "predominance of the terrorists look like" -- his name was Timothy McVeigh.

If you can judge a wise man (or a terrorist) by the color of their skin, then mister, you're a better man than I.

The Indiana University School of Medicine was hit recently. Not just social security numbers, but medical records, too--everything you need to know to become someone else. All these poor folks were patients of their sleep clinic. I guess they have something else to keep them awake all night now...

that Formula 1 racing is gay... see more here

We've got things more interesting than that going on. How about the fact that due to jail overcrowding, we're letting prostitutes and pot smokers off with just a ticket?